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THE UNION, acLi 



• --L/C 



PAST AND FUTURE: 



HOW IT WORKS. 



HOW TO SAVE IT. 



BY A CITIZEN OF VIRGliVIA. 



- There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers 
ai-e no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them- 
Nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way — though they come nothing near— than to keep too 
long a watch upon their approaches; for, if a man watch too long, it is odds he will fall asleep.— Bacow. 



FOURTH EDITION 



FIKST PUBLISHED IN WASHINGTON, D. C, AND RE-PUBLISHED IN CHARLESTON, S. C. 
BV THE SOUTHERN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION. 



STEAM POWER PRESS OF WALKER & JAMES. 

No. 101 East-Bay. 



1850. 



.u 



C&Z3 



Is Ibrchanse fi 



MOV 2 4 1916 



ii UlMlUiN, 

PAST AND FUTURE; 

HO*W IT WOIIKS, AND HOW TO SAVE IT, 



The time h'ls come when it beliooves every Sov^thern man to consider the best 
means of preserving the Union which he loves, and the rights and honor which 
are yet dearer. Sixty years have ])assed since the Northern and Sonthern States 
entered into a treaty for " tlie common defence and general welfare." We joined 
that league as equals; its sti-ictly defined powers were to be exercised for the 
equal good of all the parties, and its benefits and burdens to be equally shared. 
But our allies at the North have grovi'n strong under the fostering ]n'otection of 
this great treaty, and are no longer content with the equal conditions upon which 
it was formed. Tliey have perverted it from its original character, not only wield- 
ing the granted powers for sectional and oppressive ])urposes, but assuming every 
doubtful power for their exclusive advantage. In this spirit, they have advanced 
far in a series of measures, which, if unresisted, must end in the overthi'ow of 
our slave institutions. But it cannot be doubted that a free people, still untamed 
by the yoke of oppression and the stamp of inferiority, will resist such assaults. 
The South has at stake, not merely the fourteen hundred millions of dollars, the 
value of her slave property, but all of honor and her happiness that civilization 
and society can give. To count the means of resistance, the relative strength of 
the opponents, the value of what we must hazard, and the surest ways of pre- 
serving the Union in its original equality, is the object of this Essay. 

The history of the causes of the jiresent crisis is the history of evergrowing 
demands on the part of the Nortli, and of as constant concessions from the South. 
A hasty glance at the past will aid us to divine the future. 

Virginia, owned an immense territdry to the nortliwest of the Ohio river, ac- 
quired by the same titles with the soil of the Old Dominion itself — the royal 
grants, her treasui'e, and her blood. More than one of her ancient colonial char- 
ters covered this whole domain, and in 1778, at her own expense she fitted out 
an expedition for its conquest. Her gallant son, George Rogers Clarke, at the 
head of a small, but daring band, penetrated hundreds of miles through a savage 
and hostile country, expelled the English, subdued the Indians, and conquered for 
his mother State an empire larger than the Austrian. For the sake of the Union, 
Virginia gave up this fine country, larger than all the Southern States of the Old 
Thirteen, and by "an act of grosser fatuity," as Randolph said, " than ever poor 
old Lear or the Knight of La Mancha was guilty of," she sutiered her own citi- 
zens to be excluded from its l)enefit; for it was then a slaveholding territory, and 
the ordinance of 1787, abolishing slavery there, was passed chiefly by Nortliern 
votes, and that, as Mr. Madison said, "without the shadow of constitutional autho- 
rity." It was a country well suited for slavery, for even so late as 1806, we find 
a Convention of the inhabitants of Indiana, petitioning for its temporary intro- 
duction, and a committee of the House of Representatives, reporting through 



their cliairman, Mr. Garnett, of Vir^-inia, in favour of their prayer. But while 
Virginia was guilty of this suicidal generosity, she annexed one condition for her 
own advantage, that not more than five States should be formed out of this terri- 
tory, so as to preserve a due balance of political j)ower in the Union. Yet even 
this condition the North has violated, and 22,3.36 square miles of its area, mora 
than the average size of all the free Stales east of the Ohio, have gone to consti-. 
tute t'he future State of Minesota. 

This was the first step, and the next v.as al the formation of the present Con- 
stitution, when a contest arose as to the ratio of representation. Should the South 
have as many re])resentatives in proportion to her population as the North ? It 
was just and right that she should. The Federal (rovernment had no eoncern 
with the relations between blacks and whites, the different classes of her popula- 
tion. It had no right to inipiire whether the negro was a slave or free. The 
slaves were a better population than the free negroes, and if the latter were t(; be 
counted at their full number in the apportionment of representation, so ought 
the former. The right could not be refused, because the slaves were naturally or 
legally, unequal to the whites, for so are the free negroes. It could not be re- 
fused, because they have no political rights, for neither have free negroes, pau- 
pers, women or children. They are an essential part of the population ; if ab- 
sent, their places must be filled by other laborers, and if they are property as well 
as population, it is an additional reason for giving their owners the security of full 
representation for them. But the South, as usual, yielded to Northern exorbi- 
tance, and agreed that five slaves should count only as three free negroes. There- 
fore instead of 105 Kepreseutatives in Congress, we have only 91. 

But the free States are not content with this, and now propose to take awaj 
twenty-one more of our Re])resentatives. They say that the right of representa- 
tion for three fifths of our slave population is a sufficient cause for refusing admis- 
sion into the Union to anv new slave State ; and Massachusetts has proposed, by a 
solemn legislative resolution, to amend the Constitution so as to deprive us of 
this guarantied representation. Public meetings and eminent men have approved 
of her proposal. 

In return for this surrender of her rights, the South inserted into the Constitu- 
tion two sti])ulations in her own favor. The first })rovided that direct taxes should 
be a]iportioned amongst the States in the ratio of their representation. According 
to this provision, we ought now to pay a little more than one-third of the taxes ; 
we actually pay under the present system over three-fourths. The amount levied 
from customs since the foundation of the Government has been about 1047 mil- 
lions of dollars ; and had these duties been [laid in the ratio which the Constitu- 
tion indicates as just and proper, the South would have paid 442, and the North 
605. lUit, as we ?hall see hereafter, the slave States have really paid 798 mil- 
lions, and the free States only 249. Therefore the South has gained nothing by 
thi^ stipulation in return for her loss of representation. 

The other stij)ulation in favor of the South was, that "no person lield to ser- 
yico or labor into one State, under the laws thereof, escJiping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service 
or labor, but shall be d'livered u|) on claim of the party to whom such service 
or labor mav be duo. This ])r()vision rests for its due fulfilment, not merely u]>on 
the Federal Government, l)ut like a treaty stipulation between distinct nations, 
must be carried into effect by the munici|)al regulations of the parties, and their 
comity ami good feeling. Yet what lias it been worth to the South ? So far from 
executing this clause, and ''delivering u|i" the runaway slaves, the free States re- 
fuse to pass any efficient law to that end in Congress, and such is their state of 
feeling, and such their doniestic laws, that any Federal law, even if enacted, could 
not bo executed. In their own Governments, they make it a criminal offence, 



punishable by fine and imprisonment, for any officer, and in some States for any 
citizen, to assist in seizing- or ''delivering up" a fugitive slave. Their whites and 
their free negroes assemble m mobs to rescue the slave from the master who is 
bold enough to capture him, and then accusing him of the riot they made them- 
selves, throw him into a felon's jail and load him with tetters, as Pennsylvania 
has recently done by a respectable citizen of Maryland. "When Troutman, of 
Kentucky, pursued' his slaves into the town of Marshall, in Michigan, he waa 
surrounded by a mob, led by the most influential citizens, who declared that 
" tlwiujh the law was in his favour, yot pubhc sentiment must and should su- 
persede it," and a resolution was tumultuously adopted that "these Kentuckians 
shall not remove from this place these slaves by moral, physical, or h\qal force. 
A ma[/istrate fined Troutman $100 for the trespass in attempting to arrest his 
slaves ; and he was recognized to appear at tlie next Circuit Court for drawing a 
pistol on a ver/ro who was forcing the door of his room ! But this was mild 
treatment compared with the fate of the lamented Kennedy, of Hngerstown. 
When he followed his slave into Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and was peaceably, and 
with his own consent, bringing him away, an infuriated mob of whites and free 
blacks, incited by the Professor of a College, assaulted and brutally murdered him ! 
It is estimated by Mr. Clingman that the whole loss to the South in fugitive 
slaves is not less than fifteen millions of dollars. Mr. Butler, of the Senate, esti- 
mated the annual loss to the South at $200,000, and more recent statements 
make it probable that he was under the true amount. The philanthropy of the 
Nortli does not extend to voluntary free negro emigrants from the South, but is 
confined to the runaway slaves, whom it can force by fear to work at moderately 
low wages. 

So ra'iich for the value of the secotid stipulation, which the slave States accept- 
ed as an equivalent for their loss of representation. After the adoption of the 
Constitution, there was a considerable pause in Northern encroachments. There 
were still a few slaves in all the free States, except Massachusetts ; and many of 
their citizens were deeply and openly interested in the slave trade until 1808, 
when it was made piracy. It was notorious that James I). Wolff", who repre- 
sented Rhode Island in the Senate of the United States from 1821 to 1825, 
made an immense fortune by this traffic. The Brazil and Cuba market (as may 
be seen jjroved in the Wise correspondence,) are still largely supplied with cap- 
tive Africans by Yankee vessels ; but this is now a foreign and secret interest. 
The North was not ready for a renewed attack until the approach of the fourth 
census in 1820. Under the process of abolition and sales to the South, her 
slaves had diminished from over 40,000 in 1790, to about 9,000, and these were 
virtually free. Her strength in Congress had increased at the same time. In 
1790, the South had as'many votes'in the Senate, and only eight less in the 
House. In 1817, the North had a majority of two in the former body, and 
twenty-five in the latter. It was accordingly on the application of IStissouri in 
1819-20 for admission into the Union, that the pretension was first set iip that 
no new slave; State should enter the Confederacy. A clause prohibiting slavery 
was inserted into the bill for the admission of ^lissouri, when it became apparent 
that her people would reject such a bill, if passed, and with a government regu- 
larly organized according to all the constitutional precedents, would remain with- 
out the Union, as a separate, independent State, unless the Federal authority- 
undertook to subdue lier, and convulsed the country by a civil war. In this 
state of the question, the South had only to remain firm, and the North would 
be forced to yield ; but, as usual, the South was weak enough to retreat from her 
ground, and in her love for the Union she submitted to a provision forever pro- 
hibiting slavery in all that part of the territory of Louisiana, (except Missouri 
itself,) which fies north of .30^ 30', the southerv Imindary of Virginia and Ken- 



6 

tucky. The South thus lost, without any equivalent, nine-tenths of what wa« 
already a slave territory, purchased by the common treasure. She retained only 
110,0U0 square miles for the einii^ration of her own citizens, and surrendered 
965,000 to the North. 

Yet this so called compromise, forced upon us by Nortliern votes, is now spurn- 
ed by the free States. They have derived all the possible benefit from it on this 
side of the Rocky Mountains, and they refuse us the poor advantage, which it 
would secure, of 204, .^83 square miles out of 867, 5-H on the other side ! 

From this time, the Northern ascendancy was confirmed, if not in the present, 
yet in the future distribution of political power, which would result from her over- 
whelming superiority in territory, llie abolition Societies sprung up with new vigor, 
and the halls of Congress were made the fields of incendiary agitation. Fanati- 
cism, both in and out of Congress d<;nied that slaves were property, and in the 
debate on the Marigny D'Auterive case, claims tor compensation for their loss in 
the public service were opposed on this ground. The whole country w as jierva- 
ded by "politico religious fanaticism," which in the language of Ivandolph of 
Koanoke, "has insinuated itself wherever it can to the disturbance of the public 
peace, the loosening of the key stone of the Constitution, and the undermining 
of the foundation on which the arch of our Union rests." Demagogues of either 
party bid for the votes of these fanatics by assaults upon Southern rights, and 
the anti-slavery feeling, thus stimulated, has spread tjirough the masses, and 
grown too strong to be controlled. Here again the prophetic vision of the Vir- 
ginia orator, uttered twenty-five years since, on this very subject: " Men com- 
mence with the control of things — they put eventt in motion, but after a very 
little while ev.'Uts hurry them away, and they are borne along witu a swift fa- 
tality that no human sagacity or power can forsee or control." So luvs it been 
with this anti-slavery mo%ement. Its leaders then assured us that no harm was 
intended, and our rights would never be invaded. Mr. liurgess of Ivhode Island, 
one of the most distinguished Northern men of his day, said, after an elaborate 
argument to show the South how little she had to fear. "From neither of these 
chisses, therefore, have Southern men any thing to a]iprehend, or to [iroduce excite- 
ment. The enthusi;u<ts will not disturb them, for they have not the |)ower to doit. 
The j)hilantliropists will not do it, for they will not fur an;/ siippoml (food, violate 
even the lc(/ut rir/hts of others. From the politicians they have nothing to a})prehend, 
because they will not only break the laws of their country for any i)ur|i<>se what- 
ever, or better the condition of any man against his own will, but i)ec;!use they 
will not dimini h the political weight and influence of themselves and their own 
States, for any purpose of augmenting that of other men or other States." [Mr. 
B. affected to l)elieve that the prosperity and consequent j.olitical power of a slave 
State would always be inferior to that of a free State.] " No, be ye assured, 
throughout all the regions, the philanthropist will never unjustlij relieve the slave 
from the master ; fhe jjoliliciitn will never ilhiialbj relieve the i/taster from the 
slave.'' (Cong. I) b. vol. iv, 1096.) Mr. Jiol.bins, Mr. Hriggs, and other emi- 
nent men, lield similar language. Mr. Holmes, of Maine, a Senator, went so far 
as to declare that the refusal to deliver up fugitive slaves was virtual emancipa- 
tion, and to suppose such a refusal on the j.art of rennsylvania :is an extreme 
case, to illustrate his argnnieiit I This hist w;is as lat»( as 1833. ^^ hat an ad- 
vance since then ! Yet these assurances were about as true as those now made, 
that slavery shall not be touched within the States— that the town shall not be 
entered wlien all the walls are captured. The South, however, confided in them, 
and remained quiet; and presuming on this the war was waged with ever grow- 
ing zeal. In vain did Randolph cry to the South, ";^rjnn>m obsta,'" — in vain 
did his shrill Cassandra tones point out the nature of the attack, that the enemy 
was proceeding, " not to storm the fort, but to sap ;" that we ought to remember 



the sentiment, " non vid scd sacpe caedendo,^' and *' permit no attack to pass, no 
matter in how dennire and apparently trivial an aspect it may be presented." 
The South would heed no warning. When the flood of abolition petitions began 
first to pour in on Congress, they were received and referred to a|>propriate Com- 
mittees, as the members presenting them might move, and duly reported on. 
This course only encouraged the movement, until the South was at last roused 
into a refusal to receive petitions so insulting, and which jirayed for such gross 
violations of her constitutional rights. But it was said that this re'usal allbrded 
a pretext for fanaticnl agitation, and that all would be quiet if the old [dan was 
restored. The House of Representatives therefore repealed the rule against the 
reception of such petititions, and what has been the result? There can be but 
one answer — an ever-growing agitation, fur fanaticism and unlawful violence feed 
and wax strong upon concession. 

Meantime orga'nized societies at the North were forging county seals and free 
papers to aid the slaves whom they seduced to escape, and inciting mobs to mur- 
der the owners who dared to re-capture them. They distributed papers through 
the mails and by their agents, and spared no effort to kindle an insurrection 
among our slaves. They dared not ha\c attempted such outrages upon C'uba or 
Brazil. Between separate nations they would be cause of war, and the offenders 
would have been treated as felons, if arrested. The offence was too notorious to 
be denied, and Gov. Marcy, in his message to the New-York Legislature, in 1836, 
acknowledged it to be one of the " sacred obligations wdiich the States owe to 
each other, as members of the Federal Union," "punish residents within their 
limits, guilty of acts therein, which are calculated and intended to excite insur- 
rection and rebellion in a sister State." Yet so callous has the South grown to 
her wrongs by use, or so far have later injuries sui'passed it, that she ceases to re- 
member tliis flagrant and still subsisting violation of the spirit and intent of our 
Union. 

It is now proposed to exclude the South from the Territory of California and 
New Mexico, 446,638 square miles, large enough to make more tlian eleven 
States equal to Ohio. The South paid her share, and, as we shall see, far more 
than her full share, of the expense of the Mexican war. Of the gallant volun- 
teers who fought in battles, she furnished 45,640, and the North, 23,084— but 
httle more than half as many. The South sent one man out of every twenty-six 
of military jige — the Noi-th only one out of every 124. How those battles were 
fought and won, of which section the generals were natives, whose regiments fal- 
tered, and whose left two of their men stretched upon the bloody field, while the 
third planted the stars and stripes upon the Mexican battlements — the South will 
leave History to say. And now it is proposed to exclude the survivors and their 
fellow citizens from' the equal enioymont of the conquests of the war! And why? 
Because, as the Vermont resolutions declare, " slaver;/ is a crime ar/aiiist hu- 
manity /" 

The North next proposes to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and so 
make it a harbour for runaways, and a centre of abolition agitation in the very 
heart of Virginia and Maryland. This is to be done in defiance alike of good 
faith and of constitutional "obligation ; and why ? because, as the Gott resolution, 
passed by the House of Representatives, declares, ''slavery is infamous .'" 

The Northern vote in Congress, on these questions, is almost unanimous, with- 
out distinction of parties, against the South. The exce])tions are daily fewer, 
swept away by the overpowering tide of fanatical public sentiment at the North. 
The State Legislatures are equally agreed. 'J'hey have all, and the majority 
more than once, ado])ted resolutions of the most offensive character. The next 
threat is to abolish slavery in the dock yards, forts and arsenals, for there Con- 
gress has the same jurisdiction and responsibility as in the District. It is assert- 



ed that slavery cannot exist, without a special law to establish it, in the new Ter- 
ritories, because property in negroes is, as they pretend, a creation of munici|)al 
regulation alone, and therefore ceases beyond the limits of the State which autho- 
rizes it. Not only does this argument fail in its major proposition, for there is no 
hxw establishing slavery in any State where it exists, but it fails also in its appli- 
cation, for the limits and authority of each slave State do extend to the new ter- 
ritory held by the common Federal agent. But, if true, by parity of reasoning, 
slavery cannot exist on the high seius, and so say our abolitionists. Therefore, 
the slaves who leave Richmond on a voyage to New-Orleans, are free as soon as 
the vessel leaves the shore. The prohibition of what they call the slave trade on the 
high seas, and then on the Mississippi, whose waters, they pretend, are comii:on 
property, and then between the States, will quickly follow each other. What 
would be left the South in such a condition ? With asylums ^or runaways and 
stations for abolition agents in every State, the mail converted into a colporteur 
of incendiary tracts, forbid to carry our slaves from State to State, unable to 
emigrate to new and more fertile lands, and thus renovate our fortune?, and give 
our sons a new theatre for their energies, without sacrificing all our habits, asso- 
ciations and property ; and yet with all this, bound to pay taxes and fight battles 
for conquests we are to have no share in, and for a Government known to us only 
by its tyranny, how miserable would be our thraldom ? Can any Southern man 
bear the idea of such degradation ? He might endure the loss of his rich con- 
quests in California, but can he bear to be excluded, because his institutions are 
infamous ? because he is bra'ndad with inferiority, and under the ban of the civi- 
lized world ? If he can, then he is worthy of all,~and more than all, that is threat- 
ened him. 

But abolition will not stop, even when slavery is thus hummed in, " localized 
and discouraged," as Senator Chase proposes. Anti-slavery sentiment is to be 
made the indispensable condition of appointment to Federal office ; and by thus 
bribing Southern men to treachery, the war is to be carried on to the last fell deed 
of all — the abolition of slavery within the States — for, to quote Randoljih once 
more, " Fanaticism, political or religious, has no stojiping place, short of heaven, 
or— of hell !" 

The slave States have but 30 votes in the Senate, and two of these (Delaware) 
can liardly be counted upon in their defence. Nor is it possible to incre;use her 
strength by new slave States. Kufus King, long since avowed that the object of 
the North was ])olitical power, and she will never permit Florida or Texas to be 
divided. A serious claim is already set up to all Texas, west of the Neuces, as 
new territory, acquired by treaty from Mexico, to which the Wilmot I'roviso 
may and should be applied. The only territory south of the Missouri compro- 
mise line, and east of the RocKy Mounains. is the di>trictof 58,34G square miles, 
ceded forever to the Indians ; on the other hand, the North has \Yest of the Mis- 
sissippi and east of the Rocky Mountains, exelusive of the Indian terrritory, 

723,248 square miles. 
Adil the ])art of the old North-west Territory, added to 

Minesota, in violation of the Virginia deed of cession, 22,33G " " 
All of Oregon, - - - ^- - - - 341,403 " " 

In all of undisputed territory, - - - 1,087,047 " " 

or enough to make 28 such States as Ohio, or 21 larger than Iowa. This addi- 
tion alone to the strength of the North would give her nearly the three-fourths 
required to amend the Constitution and abolish slavery at her pleasure, if we can 
suppose tliat slic would take the trouble to enact an amendment to do that which 
Mr. Adams declared could be done, in certain ca.ses, under half a dozen clauses 



9 

in the Constitution as it now stands. But when we consider that, in case of our 
submission to the Wilmot Proviso, the Nortli will have all California, 

448,091 square miles. 
New Mexico, east of the liio Grande, - - - 124,933 " " 

Texas, between the Neuces and the Rio Crande, ' - 52,018 " " 

In all, ------- 025,642* " 

more than all the present free States, equal to 21 .States of their average size, or 
10 such States as Ohio, or 12 larger than Iowa, in addition to all we have before 
computed, her preponderance becomes truly enormous. Fifteen slave States to 
64 free States— not to mention the chances for several more in Canada! Can 
any one suppose that such a union could subsist as a union of equals ? 

In this alarming situation, the South has no hope but in her own firmness. 
She wishes to preserve the Union as it was, and she must, therefore, insist upon 
sufficient guaranties for the observance of her rights and her future political 
equality, o^i- she must dissolve a Union which no longer possesses its original 
character. When this alternative is placed before the North, she will determine 
according to the value she places upon the Federal league, and we may antici- 
pate her choice, if we can count what it has been worth to her, and how large a 
moral and material treasure she must surrender, if she persists in pushing her 
aggressions to its cverthi'ow. 

We shall not dwell upon the revolutionary struggle, though it might easily be 
shown that the South bore more than her proportional share, both in its expense 
and its battles. The white male population, over sixteen years of age, in 1790, 
was about the same in I'ennsylvania and Virginia; the former being 110,788, 
and the latter 110,934 ; yet, according to Gen. Knox's official estimate, presented 
to the 1st Congress, Virginia furnished 50,721 soldiers to the Revolution, and 
Pennsylvania only 34,905. New-Hampshire had a military population 513 larger 
than South-CaroHna ; yet she contributed only 14,900 soldiers, to South -Carolina's 
31,131 — not half! The latter quota, in fact, is nearly equal to Pennsylvania's, 
who had triple the military population, and twice the whole population, free and 
slave. It exceeded New-York's 29,830, though New- York had much more than 
double the military population, and 40 per cent, more of total population. Con- 
necticut and Massachusetts did more than any of the free States in that great 
war; yet we find that while South-Carolina sent to its armies 37 out of every 42 
citizens capable of bearing arms, Massachusetts sent but 32, Connecticut 30, and 
New-Hampshire not 18! ai:d it must be remembered, that, as General Knox 
says, " in some years of the greatest exertions of the Southern States, there are 
no returns whatever of their militia,'' while at the North every man was entered 
upon the rolls, as their pension list too plainly shows ; that while the war assumed 
a regular character there, it was here brought home to every fireside, and there 
was scarcely a man who did not shoulder his musket, even though not regularly 
in the fiekh The slave States not only fought their own battles, nearly unaided, 
but sent numerous troops to the defence of the North ; and when we consider 
that the free States had the protection of almost the whole regular army, and 
the benefit of its large disbursements, while the South was left to be scoured by 
the enemy, and that the almost utter ruin of incomes and private fortunes of her 
citizens,! far exceeded any amount of taxation ever levied, we cannot doubt that 
her sufterings in the great cause were far greater than those of the North. Put 
we will not pause to consider any inequality of Revolutionary burdens; if the 

* These numbers arc taken from the ofilciul report to the Senate, in 1847-8. 
f Mr. JefTerson says, that tobacco sold duriny; the war ii)r five or six shillings a hundred, 
and did not pay the necessary expenses of cultivation. — Correspondence, U, 19. 



10 

South bore raoro tlian her share, it was voluntary — a free will-offering on the altar 
of Independence. We will pass at once to consider the action uf the Federal 
Govorninent, and its value to the North, when the South was uo longer her own 
mistress. 

It has often been remarked, that our Union is capable of a peaceful exten?ion 
over a wider dominion than any other form of government that the world luis 
yet seen. This is due to the happy develojiment of the Federal principle in our 
Constitution — the work, not so much of the wit of man, as of Divinely ordained 
circumstances. If we keep strictly within its limitations, the central power is 
confined lo general legislation upon matters of common interest, and it is' so or- 
ganized that it cannot be abused for purposes of sectional advantages, as long as 
the States are one in character and feeling. l>ut no human "nstitutions are safe 
from the selfishness of those who administer them, and were it possible for the 
Union to be divided into two sections of unequal power, with broad and growing 
opposition of character and social organization, it would be impossible to prevent 
the stronger section froni plundering the weaker. This has happened in other 
States, between the different classes of society, and the design of every good con- 
stitution has been so to balance their powers, sis to make government tlie result 
of a compromise beiween their interests. Hut even if one chiss succeeds in estab- 
hshing a permanent mastery over the other, the baneful effects of its plundering 
are alleviated by the exjienditure of its fruits in the midst of the plundered. 
This is not the ease where a federal government is perverted from its original 
equality; the tribute drawn from the weaker section enriches the stronger, and 
the larger the confederacy, and the moie distant the tax-consumers from the tax- 
payers, the greater is the injury to the latter. Such has been the relation of Ire- 
hmd to England, under the combined effects of taxation and absenteeism, and we 
all know her lamental)le condition. Our Union was secured from these dangers, 
at its beginning, by the homogeneous character of the people. The differences of 
character in the descendants of the Pilgrims ?nd the Cavaliers, only combintd to 
make a more perfect whole. A common ancestry and language were endeared 
by common associations of literature and of history. All brought with them, as 
the very frame work of their societies, the same uoble old common law, and all 
restored its ancient Saxon sjdrit by clearing away its feudal encumbrances. The 
institution of negro slavery was foreign to none ; the meddling spirit of a spuri- 
ous pliilanlhroi»y had not yet dared to attack what it did not understand. 
Taxation would naturall}-. fall more equally, as there w:xs comparatively little dif- 
ference in the interests of the peo])le of the several States. American cotton, 
which has worked, and is working such a revolution in the commerce of the world, 
was cultivated only as a curiosity. It was supposed that direct taxes would be 
the chief source of revenue, and the Constitution secured an equality in their 
imposition ; but it was soon found that custom duties, so much more convenient in 
many respects, would be sufficient in time of j)eace. 

There was, nevertheless, even in those days, one striking difference in the inter- 
ests of the sections ; the navigating interest was almost ;is exclusively Northern, 
as tobacco and rice were Southern. Heaven had favored tlie South with a more 
fertile soil and genial climate, and it was the duty of the government to protect 
her in the uninterrupted eiijovment of all the advantages which her industry 
Could derive tVom tlie I.>ivine bounty. The larger profits of rice and tobacco 
planting withheld her people from less lucrative navigating enterprise, nnd they 
found an immense benefit in the cheap rates at which foreign vessels transported 
their product. oiis to all the markets of tin- world; it was, in effect, so mtich add- 
ed to th<ir pric'. In the North, t)n the contrary, the profits of navigation were 
equal to the average' returns of other employments, and this explains the facts 
stat'-d by Pitliin, that in Niw-Knglaml, in 1770, G-Slh* of the tonnage was own- 



n 

fd by the natives; in New-York and Pennsylvania, 3-8ths. while in each of th« 
old ])lantation States, Maryland, Virginia, the Carulinas and Georgia, the propor- 
tion of domestic tonnage was only l-8th. The tirst effort of the North, was, 
therefore, to levy heavy duties on foreign tonnage, and thus raise freights, so as to 
repair the injustice of Providence, and lower Southern profits by increasing 
Northern. We have been recently told by good authority, (Mr. (Jlinghani in lus 
speech on the 22d Jan.,) that Northern ship owners charge as much for fre n;ht 
between New-York and New-Orleans, as between New-York and Canton, and 
that the whole amount of freight on Southern ]iroduction, received by the North- 
ern ship-owners, has, on a minute calculation, been set down at !5^40,1 86,728.* 
However this may be, the loss must have been heavy, if we may judge from the 
warm opposition of the Southern members of the first Congress. The discrimi- 
nating duties on tonnage, were, however, voted through by Northern votes, and 
combTued with the paper and funding system, und some other measures, all car- 
ried l)y the same party, to change the whole couise of our trade. An annual 
pavme'nt of some six millions of dollars, on account of the ])ublic debt, and th ^, 
ordinary exjienditui'e of government, were nearly all at the North, and created a 
strong current uf exchange in that directi(;n. The Southern planter was forced 
to send his produce to a^'Nijrth.'rii port, and thence export it, and after bringing 
the I'eturn cargo there, to re-sliip it home ; fur it was actually ch'-aper to pay the 
the doub!.' frcTghts and charges of .such an o[ieration, than to continue the direct 
trade — once so beneficial — undiM- its n"\\ burdens. A few figures will give a 
juster idea of tliis revokition in eoinaieree. 

In the ten years just before the revulutionary troubles. ITGO-'O. the Southern 
colonies, with a population of 1,200,000, exported produce to tlie value of ^U2,. 
297,705; while the exports of all New-England, New-York and Pennsylvania, 
with a poj.ulation of 1,300,000, were only $9,350,035, less than a fourth. Forty 
ye.ars later, 1821-30, when the new system of legislation had had time to work, 
the actual exports of the same Southern States were but little more than half 
those of the same Northern States, tliat is, 222 millions of dollars to 427. Y^et, 
meantime, the culture of cotton had been introduced extensively, and the exports 
of that article alone, in the same p-riod, amounted to over 250 millions of dol- 
lars, chietiy the produce (at that time) of Carolina and Georgia, to say nothing of 
78 millions of tobacco and ric<', the growth of the same States, with \'irginia and 
Maryland— so completely was tlie trade diverted from its natural channel ! In 
1700-9, Carolina and ( J.?orgia ex[)orted twice as much in value as all New-Eng- 
lan.d, New-York, and Pennsylvania. In 1821-30, they w^-re exceeded by New- 
York alone. In the former period, Virginia and Maryland exported five times as 
much as New-England, eight times as much as New-York, and over thirteen and 
a half times as mucli as Pennsylvania. But, in the latter' period, tin- scales weru 
turned by the weight of Northern power; and, while Virginia and .Maryland ex- 
ported 92 millions, New-England ex]»orted 130, and New- York 215— more than 
double. The registered tonnage of South-Carolina, from 1791 to 1837, actuallj 
diminished 50 per cent., and Virginia's 78 per cent., while New-York's doubled, 
and Massachusetts's tripled, f the North has thus obtained the use of an im- 
mense amount of Southern ca]>ital, and all jts profits, causing ;ui equal loss to the 
South. When we are considering the vahie of the Union, it may be as well to 
calculate what it has been worth in money to the North in its influence on our 
trade. We shall thus learn a pait of wh;it it may cost her to indulge, what is 
either an unworthy jealousy of our ])owei' and natural advantages, or a profitless 

* See the article in tlic; Dem. Rev., by KettcU, of New-York, on " tlie Stability of the Union." 
f See the tiihle of colonial trade, and of the trade of the several States since 1780, in 
Harard'e Register, vols. 1 and 2. 



12 

and f;iriatioal ,'ihstrnction about negro slavery. Plain, common sense and figures 
arc a mighty stuinl)ling-l)lc)ck (o your fine talkcrsabout liberty and Iniinan righu, 
and our Northern allies will feel the jieeuliar fitness of such a test as dollars and 
cents. We confess, beforehand, that the estimate we shall present is much too 
low ; for it is im|)0ssil)le to t.'ike into account all the ramified pecuniary advan- 
tages of the Union to the North, and we have intentionally put every thing at the 
lowest mark, so as to reach the results which we confidently believe to be certain. 

Every body knows that all the exports of rice and of unmanufactured tobacco 
and cotton are the jiroduce of Southern labour. As to the balance of the exports 
of domestic i)roduce, we siiall assume that the South contributes a share in pro- 
portion to her population. It is ini[)ossible to give the grounds for this ;issump- 
tion within our narrow limits; but a careful examination of the official statements, 
from the earliest times, has convinced us that it does not do the South full jus- 
tice. Her naval stores, her breadstuffs, the material she furnishes for the export- 
ed manufactures, etc., amount to more than the sllan^ we have assigned her of 
the other domestic exports, besides rice, raw cotton and leaf tobacco. We sliall 
sec, in the sequel, additional confirmation of this belief. But we adhere to our 
rule of using the lowest figures. 

In the eleven years, from 1700 to 1800 inclusive,* the exports of raw cotton, 
rice and leaf tobacco, amounted to ninety-six millions, (we use round numbers,) 
out of three hundred and eleven millions of dollars. Of the balance, the South 
produee(l one hundred and four millions, the North one hundred and eleven. 
Therefore, the exj^orts of Southern produce were, in all, 200 millions, and of 
Northern, 111 millions. The imports were bought with these exports — were, in 
fact, their price, and, as such, belonged to, and ought to be divided amongst the 
producers of the exports in the ratio of their exportations. This gives 307 md- 
lions of dollars as the returns for Southern produce, and 218 for Northern. The 
whole of produce for Southern labour in the foreign trade, both the exports and 
the imports paid in exchange, amounted to 507 millions, whilst Northern labour 
yielded .'120. But, during the same period, the actual exports of domestic pro- 
duce in import^s in return from Southern ports, were only 414 millions of dollar* 
in value, and from Northern ports they reached 512 millions The North, there- 
fore, had the u«e and command of 1 82 and a half millions of the j>roduce of South- 
ern labour during this period, and the South lost the use of an ecjual amount; in 
other words, the North gained thw use and the South lost tho use of a little more, 
on an average, than sixteen and a half millions of Southern capital, every year, 
from 1700 to 1800. Instead of remaining in tlie hands of the Southern planters, 
nit I chants, siiip-owners, or agents, importers, wholesale dealers, and retail dealers, 
building up Southern .cities, and giving life and employment to hundreds of 
Soutlu-rn peo])lo, this sixteen and a half millions of dollars' worth of the produce 
of their labour was transferred, by tho action of the Government, to the North; 
and its annual use, withi>ut charge or equivalent, w;i-s given its a bounty to North- 
ern labour to build up Northern wealth. But, even this was not all; for we have 
taken no account of the exports of foreign produce. Yet the foreign goods thu9» 
cxjKirted were first bought either with domestic prodiice, or the credit founded on 
domestic jiroduce. They were tlie legitimate appendage of the trade in dome>^tic 
produce, and may be taken, in part, as an index cif what the credit and command 
of that trade wjus worth — a value which w;is, of course, greater during the lui« 
ropean wai-s than it has l)een since in time of peace. Tliese exports ought, there- 
fore, to be divided, like the imports, amongst the producers of domestic exports*' 
in the ratio of their production. The whole legitimate Southern trade would 
thus lie swelled to 713 millions of dollars, and tho Northern to 404; while the 

•Sec tables A 1. 'J, 3, 4, nt the cml 



13 

actual t'oreigii trade was 400 atul 051 luilliou^ ro^pi'ctively — malunn' Uio ;;'ain to 
the North and the currt's|iondiiig loss to the Soiitli uf the use of a Southcra capi- 
tal averaging ovor 22 millions ot" dollars a year. 

If we apply the same principles of calculation to the next ten years, from 1801 
to 1810 inclu^ive, we fhid tliat the North had tle^ use of 4;3 millions, or, count- 
ing the exports of foreign produce, of 5.1 millions a year of Southern capital, 
while the South, of course, lost the use of that amount of thti produce of her yearly 
lahour. 

JL^'roni 1811 to 1820, the war with England diminished the whole commerce of 
the country, especially the exports of foreign merchandise. During this period, 
the North had the use of 52 millions a year of the produce of Southern labour, or, 
deducting the foreign goods exported, of 45 millions. The Soulh lost the use of 
the same amount. 

In the decennial period, 1821- ;K), this gain to the North and loss to the South 
amounted to 03 millions of dollars annually, or, if we add the ex])orts of foreii»'n 
produce, to 79 millions. In tlie next period, 1831-'40, the ])roilt and loss amounts 
to the enormous sum of 93 millions per annum on tin- cxpoits of donitstic 
})roduee and return nnports, and 100 millions on the whulc foreign conunercG. 
Thus t!i<' South lost the use of the fourth part of (he wholi' annual products of 
her industry, as estimated l»y l*rof. Tucker, from the census of 1840 ; and the 
North had all that could he made by trading on this enoi'inous share of the fruits 
of Southern slave labour. The value to the North of this trade, which pro|)erlj 
belongs to the South, is still increasing ; for, in 18 48, w(> (hid that the free States 
had the usq of 120 millions of dollars' worth of tlu^ proihu^e of Southern labour 
for foreign commerce, or of 133 millions, if we add the exports of foreign mer- 
chandise. The slave States lost the use of this great capital, and the North gained 
it without ]iaying any sort bf equivalent in return. 

To estimate the value of the Union to the Nortli, in this regard, more pal])a- 
I'ly and just, let us see what it has been worth to every family of six persons, in 
each decennial period, counting tin; jiopulation at an average between the census 
at the beginning and at the end of each period. AVe place the results in a table : 



Counting t]iei'xi)orts of (ioniestic produce only, 
and tli(' inijxirts paid in return, every north 
ern family gained the gratuitous use, annu- 
ally, of tlie puifits of Southern hil)our, to 
the value of --------- - 

And, to furnish this, every Southern family 
was forced to part with the use, annually, 
of tlie pnnluct of tlieir own industry, to 
the value of - - - 

Or, adding the (.'xports of iV)reign goods, each 
Northern family took from the South the 
use of -----'-- 

And each slaveholding family had to give up 
to the North the use of its property to the 
value of --. 



$43.98 



$79.87 



45.36 8 (.34 



57.84 



98.58 



58,681 104.09 



$61/23 



68.36 



70..I6 



80.15 



$62.08 $66.01 $56.46 



72.29 
77.69 



84.77 
75.91 



91.34' 96 60 



80.'76 



63.00 



90.81 



We arc struck, at the first view of these results, with thi; much larger amount 
that the Southern family lo-cs than the Northern g.ains. This may be due, in« 
I)art to the ditlerence in population ; but it also corresponds to the general law 
that the jilunderer never gains as much as the plundered loses. What is most 
alarming i.s, the steady, and, recently, the rapid increase in the relative benefit and 
damage to the people of the two section.s. We find that every Southern family 



14 

lost, in the first jicriod, 4 per cent, more than the Northern family gained by the 
monopoly of Southern triide; in the second period, G.8 per cent, more ; in the 
third, 11 percent.; in tlie fourth, 17..") per cent.; in the fifth, 19v3 percent.; 
and. Hnally, in 1848, as much as 4.3 jier cent. more. This increase luis obviously 
kept jiace with the growtli of the Northern political power, from census to' census. 
Wliilu the free States has Vjeen such larije gainers by the eaVnings of the slave- 
holders, diverted from the hands of the natural owners by the fiscal action of the 
federal Government upon foreign commerce, they have profitted in no smaller 
proportion in the adjustment of taxation. We cannot calculate the whole bur- 
den of indirect taxes, but we can reach results which are certainly under the re- 
lative amount really paid by the South. When duties are paid upon imports, 
they are indisputably jiaid by somebody — either by the consumer of the goods 
importcil, or by the exporter of the domestic produce with which those goods are 
purchased, and to whom they, in fact, belong, or partly by both. There can be 
no fourth sujiposition. ^Yhen the planter, either directly, or through the agency 
of merchants or factors, exports his tobacco, his cotton, rice, or breadstuff's, he re- 
ceives payment in foreign goods, which he must bring back as imports ; and, when 
he pa,sses the custom-house at honn'. he has to pay a part of these returns for 
duties ; thus far, tlie tax falls entirely upon him ; and, if we stop hero in our rea- 
soning, it is plain that the duties are paid Vjy the dilferent sections in the e.xact ra- 
tio of the exj)orls of their produce, for it does not matter that the producer may 
sell his tobacco, cotton, etc., to some merchant at home, who afterwards is the 
actual exporter. The price which that merchant can give plainly depends upon 
what he can sell for again ; and that de])ends upon the value of the imjiorts he 
has to take in payment after deducting all expenses and duties, which must, there- 
fore, come out of the planter at last, just as if he exported and imported directlj'; 
nor can the producer escape tlie duties by taking in return for his exports money 
wliich he does not want, instead of the goods which he needs ; ' .r it would be asking 
an impossibility to demand nothing but specie in payment, when the exports of cot- 
ton alone are considerably more than the whole annval produce of gold and silver 
in the world. But the question here is, not what the producer could do, but what 
he actually did. The records show that he was really paid for his exports in fo- 
reign goods, and that duties have been paid upon these to an amount over a bil- 
lion of dollars ; and this enormous sum the producer must ha\ e paid when he 
had to surrender a [)art of the value of his imports to Government as he entered 
them. There is but one way in which he could have escajied, and that is, by 
selling the part left for as much as the whole was worth before, :uid, by thus rais- 
incr the price, throw tlie whole tax upon the consumer. P>nt, in this case, the 
South must have pai<l a still greater share of the duties than before ; for, not 
only is she a much larger consumer of foreign merchandise than the North, but, 
if tte price of the imjiorted article is raised, so must be the price of a similar arti- 
cle of domestic manufacture. And the South would pay three or four tiraos as 
much, in this shape, to the Northern manufacturer as she would to Government 
in the form of duties. It is true that the increased price uf domestic goods would 
also be paid bv the Northern consumer, but with this important ditl'erence, that 
what was paid would be spent among themselves, and so, in a manner, returned 
to their pockets, as "the factories are scattered through their country, while, to 
the South, it would be a dead loss. This view of the effect of duties has been 
prcs.sed by the advocates of free trade, and rejected by their oj>ponents; and, as 
we wish to proceed ujion undisputed ]iriuciples, we shall adopt the other liorn of 
the dih'mma, and assume that the duties are paid by the producei-s and the seve- 
ral sections in the ratio of their produce exported. This course is also more agree- 
able to our det<^rmination to calculate Southern burdens and Northern profits at 
the lowest possible figures ; for there can be no doubt that the other view of the 



15 

incidence of dujes would at least triple the sum paid by the Somh. At the 
same time, it is proper to say, that, in our belief, the duties are paid ])artly by the 
producer and partly by the consumer ; that, so far as the latter pays them, he j^ays 
three or four times as much more in the increased price of similar goods of domes- 
tic manufacture; and, so far as the former pays them, he loses more, often vastly 
more, in the vidue of all that part of his produce sold at home which must be 
lowered to the exact level of the value of what is sold abroad. Hence the mere 
nominal amount of duties paid to the Federal Government is the least part of the 
real burden on the South, whether we consider her as a producer of the exports, 
or a consumer of the return imports. But we shall, nevertheless, confine our- 
selves to the very moderate principle of calculation we set out with, so as to say 
nothing that is not absolutely certain. 

The whole amount of duties collected, from the year 11 0\ to June, 1845, after 
deducting the drawbacks on fore'gn merchandise exjiorted, was $;927,050,097. * 
Of this sum, the slaveholding States paid §711,200,000, and the free States only 
$215,850,097. Had the same amount been paid by the two sections, in the 
constitutional ratio of their federal population, the South would have paid only 
$394,707,917, and the North §532, 342, 180. Therefore, the slaveholding States 
paid $316,492,083 more than their just share, and the free States as much less. 
They were free, indeed I — not only of slaves, but of taxes ! By carrying our cal- 
culations down to 1849, the sum of 316 millions is raised to 330 odd millions. 
In the following table, we may see at a glance how this taxation fell on the re- 
spective population of the North and South, in each documental period : 

Table of the Tajf.9 anniiallu paid in ihities to tlie Feileral Gurernment, hv a Family of fii persons. 





17il0-1800 


1801-1810 


18n-18:>0 


1821-1830 


1831-1840 


1841-1843 


1846-1819 






In the Slave State,^ 


$1-96 
6.75 


18.78 
8.11 


in.« 


20.82 
4.L8 


^t-H 


13.21 

2.i0 


14.(8 

3.88 






Differenee 


6.21 


10.04 


13.22 


16.S4 


13.87 


10.71 


10.80 



In the first period, the Southern family paid not quite twice as much to the 
support of the General Government a.s the Northern family of the same size; in 
the third, a little more than three times as much ; in the fourth, near five times 
as much; and in the fifteen years, from 1831 to 1845, about six times as much ! 

In only other branches of the ]niblic revenue, o*" any size, the disjiroportion of 
Northern and Southern contributions has still been more enormous. We refer 
.to the proceeds of the sales of public lands, which amounted, on January 1st, 
1849, to the round sum of 137 millions of dollars. Seventy-nine of these mil- 
lions came from the sale of lands in the old North-west Territory, the free gift of 
Virginia for the sake of the Union, for which she has neither asked nor received 
one cent. About 33 millions more were from the sale of linds in Alabama and 
Mississippi north of latitu le 31", and within the cession by Georgia, making in all, 
out of the 137 millions, 112 that were contributed by the slaveholding States. 
We may fairly add to this account 13 millions, the value of lands granted for 
various purposes to tlie Northwestern States within their limits — making a total 
of 125 iniUions given by Virginia and Georgia to the free States. ]5ut it may be 
said that, if this sum had not gone into the Federal Treasury f. om lands, it must 
have been raised by direct taxation, and the Southern States would liave paid 
their share. Well, deduct that share, which would have lieen 47 millions, and 
we Eiill have left the very handsome gratuity of 78 millions, which the slave 
States, or, rather, Virginia and Georgia, gave the North in order to form the 
Union ! 

*Sce t;il)le B, at tlio ciul. 



16 

How hnvo all those taxes beeu spent ? Has the South received, in tho dis- 
bursements of tho Federal Government, any compensation for the very dispropor- 
tionate share she contributed to its revenue i And, first, as to the public lands : 

Lar^e quantities of these lands have been given, for internal improvements, to 
the States in which they lie: and such grants were, therefore, confined to the 
new or land States. It appears, from a table which we have carefully prepared 
from the latest official documents, that the new free States have received, in this 
way, 5,4V4,4Vo acres, worth, at the actual average price of the public lands sold 
within their several boundaries, §7,584,899, while the new slave states have re- 
ceived only 3 millions of acres, worth ^4,025,000 ; that is, there has been granted 
to tlie new free States 18.5 acres to overy square mile of their surface, while the 
new slave States have had only 9.3 acres to the square miles. The disproportion 
is still greater in the older States, where the system has been longer at work. 
Thus, Louisiana lias received 10.8 acres, Alabama 9.8, and Missouri only 7.4, 
while Ohio has liad 29.G, and Indiana 47.6, (nearly one-thirteenth part,) to im- 
prove evei-y square mile of their respective areixs. The ]>roportion will be some- 
what diminished, if we add the donations for schools, which were made by virtue 
of a general law ; but even then the free States have receised 38.9 acres to the 
square mile, and the slave States only 27.7. * 

We C'uinot trace all the exi)euditure of the Federal Government, so as to de- 
termine the exact amount in each section. There are no published documents to 
fuinish the necessary data. But, fortunately, the distinction can be made in 
some branches of Federal disbursements usually classed as miscellaneous, and 
from these we may judge of the rest. 

A Report of the Secretary of the Treasury, (460 Ex. Doc. 1837-8,) shows, 
that, in live years, 1833-7, out of 102 millions of expenditures, only 37 millions 
were in the slave States ; yet, dunng the same years, our table shows that they 
paid 90 millions of duties to 17 and a half paid by the free States. Therefore, 
while all that the North contributed to thesu])port of the Union was spent within 
her own borders, she enjoyed the additional expenditure of 50 millions, or |;10,- 
600,000 a year, levied on the South. 

An examination of the Secretary's report will show that even this statement 
does not give a just idea of the inequality. A better notion may be formed bj 
investigating, in detail, some branches of expenditure, of which we have full ac- 
counts. 

The collection of the customs revenue is a large and increasing item in the Fe- 
deral expenses. It gives salaries to a great number of officers ; at Boston, New- 
York and Philadelphia alone, there are 1,123; and it is the indirect source of 
subsistence to six times as many persons. These expenditures have amounted, in 
all, from the formation of the Government to the year 1849, to 53 millions of 
dollars, of which only 10 millions have been at the South. Yet the slave States 
have paid at least seven-ninths, or 41 millions of these expenses ; so that the free 
States had the benefit for their citizens, in custom-house offl"ces, revenue cutters, 
<fec., not only of their own payments— 12 millions — but of 31 millions paid hj 
the South. 

The bounties on j>iekled fish, and the allowances to fishing vessels, have amount- 
ed, in round numbers, to 10 millions of dollars. N.arly every cent of this large 
sum has guiie to the free States, chiefly to New-England. The records show that 
slaveholder^ have not received so much of it as $150,000. Yet the-se very slave- 
holders have paid of those bounties and charities to the North no less than 
$7,800,000. 

♦Our calculations arc fouuded on the Report of tlio OommLseioDcra of the Land Office. 
1848-'9. 



i 



17 

While $838, T6 have been spout by tlie Federal Government in defending with 
forts each mile of the Northern coast line, from the river St. John's, in Maine, to 
Delaware Bay, only -$545,1 7 per mile has been devoted to the Southern coast to 
the Sabine, up to June 30th, 184G, the latest period for which there are official 
returns. More than six-elevenths of the exjjenditures on the Soutliern coast have 
been in fortifying the Chesapeake Bay and the mouth of the Mississippi — that is, 
the access to 'the seat of Government, and the great outlet of north-western com- 
merce. It is fair, thei'eforc, to deduct what was spent at these points, which 
leaves only 8416,89 spent per mile in fortifications on the Atlantic coast of {he 
slave States, from North-Carolin;? to Mississip})i inclusive. Yet, while the South 
has not had half as much expended in her defence as the North, she has paid 
fome 14 out of 18 millions of dollars devoted to these objects. See Off. Rep. to 
the Senate, 79 Senate Doc, 1846-47. 

The light-house system exhibits the same inecjuality. The approju-iations for 
erecting light liouses for the year ending June 30, 1847, (see 27 Ex. Doc, 1847- 
'48,) were 60.01 for each mile of the Atlantic shore to the North, and 'i;29,79 — 
not quite half — for each mile of shore to the South, from Delaware to Texas ! 
The difference is still greater, if we consider the whole coast line, including islands 
and rivers, to the head of tide. The North had -^29. 02 to light every such mile, 
and the South 89.23 — nut one-third. The expense of supporting the existing 
light-houses in the same year, (see 7 Ex. Doc, lSl7-'8;on the Atlantic and 
Gulf coasts, was 8476,642. Of this, the South paid at least 6360,000 ; yet she 
received only 'S187,830 — equal to 626.70 per mile on her dangerous shore iVom 
the Delaware U> the Rio Grande, or $8.28 per mile of her whole coast of line. 
The balance, yl 72,1 TO, of hr-r payment went to assist the Norih, who sjjent but 
$116,642 of her ov.n money in ligiiting her shore at a cost of $87,65 per mile, 
or, including rivers and islands, of $43,27 per mile. In the year 1833, there was, 
(see 27 Ex." Doc, 1837-8) — 

At (he North, 1 light-house to every 32.6 miles of Northern shore, .ami to every 0.5.1 miles of coast. 
At the South, 1 '■ ^' iOS.8 " •' ' '• '370.1 " 

At the North, I lamp '• 2.9 " •• •' 5.'J " '• 

At the South, 1 '• " S.G " '• " 'J<j.3 •' '• 

lu 1839. there was— (see 140 Ex. Doc, 1831-42)— 

At the North, 1 li','h(-hoi!sc to everv -^4.8 inile.< of shore, ami to every 5').2 miles of coast. 

At Ihe South, 1 ' '^ ■• 8!.2 "' '' " •,>7!i.4 " >• 

At the North, 1 laiup " -'.4 " " •• 4.9 '• '■ 

At the South, 1 " * '■ • 0.8 '• " •' 2J.4 " '• 

Scarcely half as man}' lamps as the North had light-houses ! And yet, at this 
time the South was paying tiv?-sixths of the revenue. The pro])ortions in other 
years are not materially different; we might muUiply examples at pleasure. (See 
the annual reports.) 

Another fruitful source of expense, which threatens to grow larger, is the in- 
ternal improvement system, ancl, like all the rest, it bears with peculiar weight 
upon tiie South. Before the year 1845, (see 44 Sen. Doc, 1846-47,) there had 
been sjient upon roads, htirbors and rivers, (exclusive of the Mississippi ;ind Ohio, 
•which are common to both sections,) the sum of $15,201,223. Of this sum, tlie 
South received $451 to improve each ten miles square of her area, equal to $2,- 
757,816, while 812,743,407, that is, $2,805 for each ten miles square, was al- 
Joted to the North. The South paid not only all that she ever received back in 
these appropriations, but also $10,142,,184 for the exclusive benefit of the North. 
The cost of the forty-eiglit miles of the Cumberland road in Maryland and Vir- 
ginia, $1,020,239, is included, for that road was designed for the Northwest. 
2 



18 ' 

But, if it is deducted, thorc are still left $9,121,945, paid by Southern labor for 
the internal improvements of the North. 

The history of this system illustrates a rule to which history oftei-s no excep- 
tions — that a tribute grows with the stren;i;th of the collectors. Before 1824, 
the only appropriation of any considerable size for internal improvements was 
$607,000 for tlie Cumberland road, east of the Ohio river. About that time, 
the North became stronger by a new apportionment of representation, and the 
unfortunate concession on the Missou"i questiun encouraged lier to new encroach- 
ments upon the South. From 1824 to 1833 inclusive, the Federal Government 
gave for internal improvement to the free States -^i.^, 194,441, or $1,145 per ten 
miles square, and to the slaveholding States oidy ^957,100, or $157 per^ ten 
miles square. From 1834 to 1845 inclusive, the North received $7,231,639, or 
$1,593 per ten miles square, and the South 81,171,500, or $192 for the same 
area. In the first period, the Nortli received from the treasury 7.2 times as much 
as the South ; in the next period, 8.3 times as much. In the tirst period, the 
South i)aid. over and above what was given back to her, ^3,042,900 to improve 
the North, and sjo, 73 1,000 in the second period — an increase on the yearly ave- 
rage of 31 per cent. 

The inequality was especially great amongst the old thirteen States. 

New-England received $1,101,730, equal to $1,715, to improve every ten miles square. 

New- York, Pennsylva- 
nia and New-Jersey, 
received, - - - - .n.226,350, " 5,234, " " " 

The old plantation 
State;--, ^'i^ginia, iVhi- 
rylaiiil, tlic C'aroli- 
nas aiul (ieorgia, - - 053,100. " 320 

This nt'cds no comment. 

The Pre-'idential veto has arrested these appropriations since 1845. Congress, 
however, passed bills which gave still more to tlie North and still less t<# tlie 
South. The estimates from the Treasury Department, this winter, are of the 
same charaeter, for which we im]nite no blames to the admiiii>tration. It well 
knows that nothing more equal could receive the sanction of Congress, as now 
constituted. 

The coast survey had cost not inuch less than a million of dollars in 1845, and 
had been almost entirely confined to the Northern coast, though the North had 
only (>,G75 miles of co;vst line to the South's 21,021. 

it is generally, and perliajis justly, supposed that the post office system works 
more equally between the sections than any other part of the Federal Adminis- 
tration. Yi-t, in 1846, the mails weic t.ran*;|)(.rted 21,373,000 mil.-s in the free 
States, or 47 miles to every square mile of their .•srea, and only 16,025.000 miles, 
or 26 miles to each square mile in the South. In 1847, there were 9,599 post 
ma'-ter- in the North, and only 5,664 in the South, though th.'ir population is as 
97 to 73. and their areas (exclusive of Texas) as 45 to 61. * There is, in fact, a 
general disposition at the North to look to Federal ex]>enditures as a means of 
.support; and there is a constant press on the administration to multiply otlices. 
IL-nee the immense ru~li for rennnals and scramble for the spoils at the incom- 
ing of every new President, and the cardinal maxim of Nortlurn party manaixo- 
,„^„t — to .rovern by patronig(^ and not by a n-li.ince on principle. This maxim 
is nttorly repugnant to Southern feeling and pnictice. 

The pen- ion system throws a strong light on the tendency of tin- ])eople of the 
free Sfeites to quarter themselves on the General (iovernnieiit, at the same time 

* See tl)»! .aiiniiid report 



19 



that it shows tlic usual ))rogrcssive ineijuahty of expcuditures bi-twccu tho two 
se#lijiis. A oaiouhitiou, Ibuuded oa data in 307 Sen. Doc, ]8o8-"9, shows that, 
from 1791 to 18-"jS iuchisive, ■^•35,598,904 has been paid for rcvohitioniny jn'ii- 
sioiis, of which tli.^ Nortli iTcoived !ip28,262,597, or |;1 27,29 f^r every soldf.'r slio 
hail in the war, and the S<,)uth 'f;7,;i30,307, heiiijj," onlv *?-'49,89 for each of her sol- 
diers. The nuinitrr of soldiers is here estimated aeeoi'diiig to Knox's rejioit, 
which, confessedly, does not show, by a great deal, the full exertions of the South 
in raising troops. Li't us, tlieii, com))are the amounts received with the white 
population of each section in 1790, and we find tlie free States, in ] 8.S8, had re- 
ceived ^0 4.;35 of revolutionary pensions for every soul in their limits in the former 
yefir, while the South had received only iJo.Gl for every white. But the military 
efibrts of the slaveholding States were fully in proportion to their wliite po]iula- 
tion ; -for the labor of the slaves on the plantations h'ft a much larger jiro[)ortion 
of their masters free to take up arms. On this supposition, the Southern soldier 
received oidy f^'.^.^ I for the same revolutionary services which brpught the Noith- 
ern ^i]4.;>5. This gross inequality remains the same, by whatever test it is tried. 
For example : 



Tlio seven free States contributed to the expenses of the war,* 
And had receiveil in pensions, in 1838, ----- 

Balance in tlieir favor, 



The six slave States contributed ----- 
And liad received, in 1838, - - - - - - ' 

Balance in tlieir favor, ------ 

Now, let us see how it stands with siuiile States : 



•?61,(t7l,l70 
28,262,597 

$'33,708,573 

^52,438,1 23 
7,336,367 



§45,101,756 



Virginia contributed. 

And received in pensions, up to 1838, 

Massachusetts contributed, 

And received, in the same time, 

South-Carolitia contributed. 

And received, in the same time, 

New- York contributed, 

And received, in the same time. 



?19,085,982 ratio as $10i) 
1,969,534 to 10.3 

17,964,613 ratio as ?-lUO ' 
4,058,031 to 22.8 

11,533,299 ratio as ijfiUiU 

431,141 to 3 5 

7,175,983 ratio as $100 
7,850,054 to 109.3 



To appreciate this Injustice fully, we must remember that the South not only 
paid into the Feder.il 'J'reasury all she ever received back in jiensions, but also 
.$10,003,033 of ihe pensions given to the North. The inequality of the ap])or- 
tionment of these revolutionary pensions has grown with the Northern majoiity 
in t'lingress. In the first decennial period, 1791-1800, the free Slates received 
annually, »r58,000 more than the South. In the next period, this yearly excess 
was diminished to $43,000, but it rose to -$339,000 in the third period. From 
1821 to 1830, it averaged -1^799,000, and from 1831 to 1838, ¥855,000. In like 
matnier grew the burden upon the South in ]';iying the pensioners at the North, 
besides those at home. In the first ];eriod, it w.-is .15417,449 ; in the second, 1370; 
in Ihe third, ^3, 000,000 ; in the fourth, tv7, 500,000 ; and in the. last period, (of 
only 8 years,) 1^9,750,000. 

According to General Knox's report, the North sent to the army 100 men for 
ev.ry '227 of military age in 1790, and the South loO for every* 209. Hut, in 
1848, I out of every 62 of iIk; men of military age in 1780 was a revolutionary 
])ensionerin the North, and only 1 out of 1 10 in the South. New-Kiigi;ind ;;lone, 



*See the well known report of the Commissioners to fettle (lie State accounts 



20 

then, had 3,1 4G of these pensioners — more than there were in all the slave States; 
and New-York two-thirds as many, though she coutrihiited not one-seventh as 
much to the war. 

Till- results are equally remarkabk-, if we have regard to the whole number of 
pensions, revolutionary and other. The expense, under this head, for the four 
years ending in 18o7,* were I'SjOlCOol in the free States, and 2,.'588,101 in the ■ 
slave States, who not only paid their own share, but 80,300,000 to the Morth. 
New-England alone received 83,924,911 — rather more than 82 a head for every 
man, woman and child within her !;;;!its. During tlie same four years, she ])aid 
in taxes to the Federal Treasury, according to our tables, 81.91 per head — so 
that .she acttially received more in pensions than she paid in taxes! Iii 1840, 
there were not quite two and a hi\lf times as many pensioners at the North as 
the South ; but, in 1848, there were more than three' times as many. New-Eng- 
land had more revolutionary pensioners than the five old plantation States had 
pensioners of all kinds. 

The public debt has been the source of yet more enormous benefits to the 
North. The payment on account of piincipal and interest had amounted,'in all, 
on the 30lh of September, 1848,f to 8500,138,719. Of this sum, the South had 
paid 112 millions of dollars from the lands ceded by her, as before shown, and 
302 millions of the residue in duties on imports, making, in all, 414 niillions, 
nearly the whole of which was paid at the North. The chief owners of this debt 
have been citizens of that section, partly because the funds yielded a higher pro- 
fit than investment in th«ir lands — partly because they could ad\antageously spe- 
culate in stocks, by means of the free use of the largo Southern cajiital which, as 
we have shown, continually passed through their hands. The average payment 
of the Federal debt by the South to the North has been over 7 millions of dollars 
a year. Well may the North say tl^t "a national debt is a public blessing !" 

The heads of the Federal expenditures which we have examined give a fair no- 
tion of the rest ; and it may be safely assumed that, while the South has paid 
seven-ninths of the ta.xes, the North lias liad seven-ninth of their disbursement. 
The military and naval expenses, the civil and di],lomatic, are. partly in salalies, 
but chietly in contracts. As to the salaries, it is well known that the North re- 
ceives much the most ; and it is equally notorious that nearly all the contracts 
are given to her citizens. It may be supi)osed that they are the lowest bidders, 
and that, if Southern bidders made better offers, they would get the contracts. 
But, before they can do so, they must be placed on an ecjual footing. The largo 
capital which the South has in the foreign trade must ])e restored to the hands 
of her citizens, for it is the use of this cajiil;.l, for which the Northern man pays 
nothing, and the concentration by the Fed.i;d fiscal action of all our commerce 
in her cities, that enable him to command all the lucrative contracts of (Govern- 
ment. 

\Ve have no means of computing the exact number of persons at the North 
who live upon* the Federal Treasury. For the larger part of the custom hous;^ andi) 
land officers, as well as of the other civil oflRcers' are in the free Stat's. If we 
add all these to the 20 odd thousand ]K'nsioners| and post masters, the contrac- 
tors and the holders of the public debt, we shall b& safe in estimating the per- 
sons at the North, who are directly dependant on the federal revenue, at 50,000. 
Add their families, and we have an army of 300,000 tax consumers in the free 
States, nearly all suii]iorted by the slavcholding tax payers. ] 

Let us now compare the present condition of a Northern and Southern jtarish, , 
each containing 100 famiHes of .'^ix pei-sons. In the former, we .shall find that 

» See 460 Ex. Documents, 1837-'8, 

f ^ce Treasury Reports, 1848 '9. 

\ In 1840, the peiit-ioners alone at tlie North were over 31,000. 



21 

there are sonic three of its fa?iiilies who dorive the whole or :i |iart of their iiieome 
directly from the United States Treasury, while there is no such family in the 
latter, if it h(i like the majority of the slaveliolding communities of the same size. 
If the Northern ]i)arish happen to be on the coast, every bay and inlet and creek, 
has been carefully surveyed by the Federal (Toverument, and li<;hts chine 'every 
twenty odd miles alono- the shore, to protect its mariners. In the Southern par- 
ish the vessels must iind tlieir way through tlie shoals as they best can, for there 
has been no survi'v, and no warning beacon cheers the storm for hundreds of 
miles. The Union spends ten dollars in cutting roads and canals, cleaning rivers 
and constructing harbors in the Northern parish, wliere it spends one in the 
Southern. And to secure these benefits, the parish in the free States pays in taxes 
^388, and receives back in disbursements 81,360 ; while tlie same number of fa- 
milies in the slave States pay ;i?l,620, and receives (.mly ^270. The excess of 
!^1,350 goes to be distributed amongst the Northern parishes. This is not all, 
for the hundred families of the Southern neighborh<jod are dep-rived of the j)rotits 
of using over 88,000 of their own cotton, tobacco, gr;'in, (tc, in order to let the 
nndred Northern, families use over •V5,000 of it a whole year free of charge. 
When the two parishes join in v.-ar against a common foe, the Southern must 
send five times as many soldiers, and pay five times as much of the expenses; and 
yet when the contest is over, it must sutler its partner to seize all the conquest, and 
at the same time to kidnaji its jiropcrty and attack its domestic peace. Can in- 
solence — can tyranny go farther ? < )r can history shov,- a more degraded com- 
munity than the Southern must bi-, if it submits? 

When we regard this course of taxation and disbursement, we cease to wonder 
at the gfowtli of the cities of the North, or the palaces that cover her com])ara- 
tively barren soil. McCulloch remarks, that England's enormous expenditures 
during the great Eluropean war, in the beginning of this century, offered new em- 
ployments ami rewards to hundreds of her peo])le, that the heavy taxes only 
served to stimulate their industry and invention, and that, as nearly* all the public 
debt was due at home, it may well be <Ioul>te<l whether the whole etiect was not 
to increase her wealth. However this may be, we can easily imagine how vast 
wouM have been her profits and prosperity, had these taxes all been paid by some 
foreign nation, while she liad the advantage of their disbursement, or how wretch- 
ed and miserable would be her people, had the vast sums levied from them been 
expended for the benefit of strangers in far distant countries. Yet the first c^se 
is but a picture of the state of the N(_)rth un<k'r our Union, as the last would be 
of the South, but for her great natural resources, and the recuperative energies of 
her people and her institutions. In this Government forcing system, the genial 
climate and luxuriant gi'owth of the South are transported, beneath wintry skies, 
to the rocks of New-England. The primal curse is partly obliterated for them 
by Federal agency, and the command is changed into "Thou shall live by the 
5weat of the brow of the Southern shueholder." The wages of Southern labour 
and the profits of Southern capital are swept northward by this current of Fede- 
ral taxation and disbursement as steadily and more swiftly than the Culf stream 
bears the waters of our shores. Well may the North declare that tin.' Union is 
invaluable, and sing hymns to its ])erpuity ! 

For all this crying injustice, the South has to l)lame her own Aveak concessions, 
.\s much as the grasping exr.ctions of the North. The free States have oidy usecl 
their power for their own interest ; and when has human nature ever been such, 
:hat a strong majority woudd do othei'wise ? 

" For why ? — the <,'()old old rule 
Sufficetli them, the simple plan, 
Tliat he ;;houh! take who hath i!',; power, 
And he should keep who can '." 



22 

IVrhaps the free States may, like (^livo, when confessing the phinder of tht 
East, marvel at its facility, and ''stand astonished at their own moderation." Th« 
white poj)ulation of the South lia» kept jmre the blood of their revolutionary 
fathi-rs. ']"ho few emitrrants who have settled in the South have been quickly 
assimilated in character by the superior numbers of her people, and have thu» 
added to luT strcni^th. Not so in the Iree States ; their population has increased 
faster than at the South ; but the ditfi'rence is entirely dut- to the emigrants of 
Europe, who are rapidly increasing in number. In 1840, the arrivals were under 
100,OUO, and last year over 400,000 sought our shores, which nunibci'is greater 
than the whol(> natural increase of the people of the North. The tide cannot 
stop at this point. Mr. Webster has proposed, and his proposal is approved by 
all who are eager to court tlie foreign vote, to give a quarter section of the pub- 
lic land to every foreigner wlio may choi^se to settle on them. What countless 
swarms of needy adventurers will pour out of the great European hive to accept 
the bounty ! The free States can no longer assimilate such crowds to ther na- 
tives ; the superior numbers will overpower and change the native character. And 
it is all for thosf strangers, to ])rovide lands to be given away to all nations of 
the earth, that the citizens of the South are to be excluded from the common do- 
main ! The old likeness of interests, of character, and of feeling between the 
sections is fast wearing away under these influences. The free States are filled 
more and more with a manutacturing and town population ; the slave States ])re- 
serve tlie old country character. The peojde of the former are losing the Revo- 
lutionary associations which were one of the bojids of our union. If some still 
trace back to fathers who fought side by side with the ancestors of the Southern 
];eople at Monmouth, and in Kutaw, a still greater number can remember no sucti 
past ; their sires were then in other liands, or jierchance were here, but in the ranks 
of the foe. There is no sympathy, no common feeling among these people, to 
weigh against th^ deep-seated and growing hostility to the institutions of the slave 
States. Negro slavery on the one hand, and what Alison calls " the practical 
white slavery of factories," on the other, combine with these causes to make a 
yawning and ever widening gulf between the sections. Even constitutional gua- 
ranties are but parchment bulwarks against the assaults of selfish and supeiior 
power. When the parties are separated by widely variant social institutions, and 
by arrowing opposition of character, sentiments and interests, there can be no 
security for Hie weaker, short of a perfect equality in ]»olitical power, and on that 
the South must insist, as wise old (Jeorge M;ison, one uf Virginia's l.v'Lrhtest lights, 
said : 

" The 7H^yo;-(7// will be governed by their interests. The Souti in States are 
the minoriti/ in lioth Houses. Is it tf> be exjiected that they will deliver them- 
selves, bound hand and foot, to the Eastern States, and enal»I<- tli.Mn to exclaim 
in the words of Cromwell, en a certain occasion, 'the Lord haih <!■ livered them 
into our hands.' " 

To determine • till more conclusively whether the North will persist in refusing 
this equality to I lie South, when she finds that the coijsequence must be a disso- 
lution of tlie Union, let us examine the eflects of such an unhappy event upon 
her condition. In the first jtlace, she would lose all the advantacfe she now de- 
rives from the gratuitous and forced loan of the Southern capital in the foreign 
trade, and instead of receiving the fertilizing showers of the federal disliui-sements 
of the taxes paid by the slave States, the whole expenses of her <Jovernment 
would be thnnvn u])on her own j^eople. Last year, her productions for exhorta- 
tions were only §32,210.000 and la r corresponding share of the imports, inclu- 
ding specie, not quite 36 millions. IIow would it be possiMe to raise on these 
imports, duties to th. amount of 20 millions — her share of the expenses of the 
Federal (Juvernment. as estimated l>v Mr. Meredith for the next fiscal y.-ar ? An 



23 

averasxe duty of even 50 per cent, would raise onlj 18 millions, supposing the 
imports .«u remain the same, when, in fact, they could not fail to decline under 
smh a burden. Direct taxes, ruinous to her manufactures, and still more dange- 
rous to her social organization, would be the inevitable resort. Compare this with 
the federal taxes she has paid under the .present Union for the last nine years, 
averaging less than 6 millions of dollars a year. She could not assist her finances 
by imposing duties on her imports from the South, for they consist chiefly of un- 
manufactured ]-)roduce, which is essential ti her peo{>le. IIow can she tax the 
Virginia grain, which feeds New-England, or the cotton on which her factories 
depend for their very existence ? There is reason to suppose that her ditHiculties 
would be an increased by an actual decline in hi-r foreign trade. Tln^ only in- 
crease in her exports for many years has been in m.inufictures and l)readstut^s. 
The former were rather over 11 millions of dollars in 1849, chiefly C(jtton goods. 
Of these the South furnishes the raw material, estimr.ted by Mr. McCulloch as 
well as by the Secretary of the Treasury, at one fourth of the whole value, to say 
nothing of the food for the operatives, which has been calcuhited by Mr. Webster 
and otlier';, at a large sutn, and for which the necessities of Northern industry 
would still secure admittance into their ports free of duty. But if the North, 
instead of receiving a large bonus through the Federal Govermrient from the 
South, had to pay the expenses of her own Union, her nianufactures could not 
stand English competition for a day. Even the South, if her i>eo}»le tound it 
profitable to )nanufacture, would have a great advauUige in the lightness of taxa- 
tion. The Noi'th, for example, has hitherto conducted a very lucrative trade with 
China, to whom she sells a!K)Ut a million of dollars worth of cotton gijods, but 
vJieii {\v.^ prici^ of her luanufiK'tures was r;us<'d by taxation, and the return car- 
goes subjected to the tax nec'ssiiry to raise her required revenue, what would 
become of this tradt^ ? Her goods would no longiT enter the Southern market, 
not only free of duty, but with a discriminating duly of 30 to 50 per cent to 
protect them against foreign competition. On the contraiy, they would have to 
meet the manufactures of the world on terms of perfect equality, ])erliaps even 
with a discrimination against them, unless she preserved the comity of nations as 
to our slave institutions. The Nortliern exports of manufactures, so far from in- 
creasing, would probably decline, if the Union were dissolved. They can barely 
sustain the competiti(^n "of their rivals with all the jiresent advantages; not only 
withdraw these, but increase their cost by taxation, and they must sink beneath 
the burden. 

Nor is it possible that the free States, despite the fables about the Northwest, 
can long have any surplus of breadstutfs and provisions for exportation. We 
find that, according to the estimate of cro])S and population in the Patent Ofiice 
Report for 1848, and assuming, with tlie Commissioner, the increase of neat cat- 
tle and swine since 1840 at 25 ])er cent., that the i)roduction of grain ('.sheat and 
corn) at the South was 45.97 bu-hels for every person, whib^ at the North it was 
only 24.78. The census of 1840 g,iv(! 38.74 bushels per head at the South, and 
1848 at ihe North, which is prol)ably more reliable. In 1840 there were 104 
neat cattle and 22(3 hogs tor every one hundivd i)ersons at the South, which were 
increa-^ed to 107 cattleand 232 Jiogs in 1848. At the North there were 76 jieat 
cattle in 1840, and only 72 for every 100 pers(Mis ; while of swine, in the former 
year, there wen; 101, and in the latter only 90 for the same number of persons. 

These statistics show, not only what has been ]><jinted out by other inquiries, 
that the', subsistence of the NortJiern labourer is much lower than of the Southern, 
but that is declining, espeeiallv in animal fxnl, which is always the first sign 
that jiopulation begins to press upon the' means of suii-isti-nee. Other facts are 
equally conclusive, that the l)ulk of th<' surplus bre.-idslull's and ].rovi-ions mu>t be 
at the South, and that the North will soon find it as much lu she can do to feed 



24 

her own population well. The average crop of wheat in Virginia and Maryland 
is 10 bushels fur every person of their population: in Tennessee 9, in Kentucky 
7^. But in New-York it is only 5^ bushels, in Pennsylvania 0, and even in 
the new States, Indiana with 8^ bushels, does not equal Tennessee or old Virgi- 
nia ; and Illinois produces under 7 bushels for each person. Ohio reaches 10 1-2 
bushels, but her Board of Agriculture says that she has attained her maximum, 
except at an increased cost of production. The future prospects for the wheat 
crops in the free States are still worse. New-England has actually declined in 
lier food crops of all kinds.^- We are told, on g«od authority, that western 
New-Yoi'k, once celebrated for the crops on the Genessee, produces less wheat 
than formerly,! and Mr. Solon Robinson, a most conVpet^it judge, and himself an 
Indiana man, says "wheat is the most precarious croj) in the West, and altogether 
unsafe for the former to rely on. I consider Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, 
the best wheat States in the Union. I saw one thousand acres of wheat in Vir- 
ginia last season, better than any one thousand I ever saw in the West." This 
agrees with the results of chemical analysis, which shows that most of the north- 
western soils, when their virgin qualities are exhausted, are destitute of some of 
the most essential elements of Avheat.J 

This gradual, but sure decline in the returns of agriculture in the free States, 
is one cause of the increasing tendency of their population lo desert the country 
and concentrate in towns and factories. In some of those States the only in- 
crease, according to the last census, was in the towns. In New-York, the popu- 
lation of the fourteen largest towns increased 64 1-2 per cent.; in all the rest of 
the State, only 19 per cent. In Ohio, the fifteen Ir.rgest towns increased 138 per 
cent. ; the State but 62 per cent. According tt) Professor Tucker, at the last 
census, 35 per cent, of the whole New-England pojiulation lived in towns. The 
proportion of person? engaged in manufactures had increased from 21 per cent, 
in 1820, to 30 per cent, in 1840 ; in the iniddle States, tlie increase liad been 
from 22 to 28 per cent.; and even in the Northwest from 10 to 13 percent. It 
has 1)een yet more rapid since. " Meantime the proportion engaged in agriculture 
had declined ; the reverse was the case in the slaveholding States. It appears, 
therefore, that it is impossible for the North long to have any surplus of food for 
exportation, whether we regaid the capacities of her soil or the proportion of her 
people engaged in tilling it. The crops cannot keep pace with the natural in- 
crease of her ])opulation, and much less with the still greater increase from Eu- 
ropean emigration. There is yet another cause to ]irevent Northern grain from 
being exported, while Southern can be bought. The quality of wheat and the 
quantity of bread it will make, de|iend upon its dryness and the proportion of 
nutritive matter («r gluten contained in it. Its dryness is all important in deter- 
mining whether it will bear a voyage. According to the analysis of Prof Beek, 
of llutger's College, N. .J., (in the Patent Office Report, 1849,) Southern wheat 
has several pi-r cent, less water than Northern, and as much more gluten. So 
great is this difftience that it is said that Alabama wheat flower will make 20 ])er 
cent, more broad than Ohio. This, of itself, will give a ijiore and more decided 
advantage to Southern breadstuff's in tlu' foreign market. J. 

The gcn(>ral conclusion is therefore unavoidable that the North cannot long 

\ 

♦ Sec Elw(M)(l Fishi-r's " North nnd .'^untli." 

f .Son PiiU-nt Oftire Kopoit t\.r 1848, p.igo 'J47. 

X See ai) exocllfiit ei^i^ay mi tlie wheat crop, by Mr. ITolcnmb, of Del., in llic Am. Farmer. 

* By a comjiari.sdn of the t;ible of prices in New-Yoik and Cliicago, with the reports of 
fariMci!* in the ratcnt Office Report, we rtiul that it alreadv cost.* tlie Xortlnvestern farnier, 
on an avcnigc, i?l to iai.<e a bushel of wheat and place it in New- York, and 75 cents for a 
bushel <>{ corn. The least iiicrfla.«e in the cost of protlnction wo\ild drive him from tlie mar- 
ket. 



25 

contitme to export breadstulls and provisions, and that the general amount of 
her {)roductions for exportation, inelnding- her manufactures, woukl greatly de- 
,dine under a dissolution of the Union. Her main reHance for revenue would 
therefore be on a direct taxation, and how this would effect her social condition 
we shall presently see. 

Meantime the situation of the slave. vStates would he very different. The ex- 
ports of cotton, rice and tobacco for the year ending June 30th, 1849, were 
about 74 millions of dollars. Add the Southern share of the rest of the domes- 
tic exports, and it makes the whole e\"])orts of the produce of the slave States not 
less than 100 millions of dollars. Their proj^ortional share of the imports paid 
for this produce was 1 12 millions, and the low duty of 10 per cent, on these 
would yield to the South a revenue of more than 11 millions, ample for every 
purpose. Iler proportional share (of Mr. I\Ieredith's estimates, before I'cferred to) 
is only 15 millions, and her expenditures would be much less for her population 
than the Worth's. Iler territory is more compact, and her jti'o|ile are unaccus- 
tomed to look to (lovernment for the means of living. All the ordinary expen- 
ditures of the United Stat;'s in 1830, with a third more population than the 
South now has, were but 13 million^. We have })laced her revenue at the low- 
est, for the increase in the value of the exports of cotton alone in the present 
year will probably be 40 millions if we may judge from the returns thus far. If 
we add the rice, tebacco, grain, and cotton sold to the North, 3M millions more, 
we have a total of 170 millions of exports, and the return imports mav b:- f;>.ir!v 
put down at 200 millions, on which the same low duty v.-ould yield to the South 
a revenue of 20 millions of dollars ! It is very plain that the South could have 
no difficulty in her finances. Meantime her trade would revive and grow, like a 
field. of young corn, when the long expected showers descend after a withering 
drought. The South n')w loses the use of some 130 or 140 millions a year of 
her capital, and also pays to the Federal Government at least 26 millions of taxes, 
23 of which are spent beyond her borders. This great stream of taxation con- 
tinually bears the wealth of the South far away on its waves, and small indeed is 
the portion which ever returns in refreshing clouds to replenish its resoui'ces. 
Turn it back to its natural channel, and the South will be relieved of 15 millions 
of taxes — to be left where they can l>e most wisely expended, in the hands of the 
payers; and the other 11 milli(jns will furnish salaries to her people and encour- 
agement to her labour. Restore to her the use of the 130 or 140 millions a 
year of her produce 'or the fireign trade, and all her piirts will throng with l)u- 
siness. Norfolk, and Charleston, and Savann.ali, so long pointed at by the North 
as a proof of the pretended evils of slavery, will be crowded with shipping, and 
their warehouses crammed with merchandize. The nse and command of this 
large capital would cut canals ; it would l)uild roads and tunnel mountains, and 
drive the iron hors^; thr..)Ugh the remot</st valleys, till " the desert should blossom 
like the rose." 

A remarkable ditference between the Northern and Southern section is, that 
while the lattei' is complete in herself, both in the resources of wealth and the 
means of communication with the woiM, the former is strikingly the reverse. 
We have already shown that the slaveholding States produce nearly twice a-s 
much food for their population as the free States, and are still increasing in quan- 
tity, both of bread and meat, for each person. It is notorious that the Eastern 
States have long been in tlie habit of drawing l;n-ge snpplies of grain from the 
Chesapeake and from North-Carolina. With the tendency of Northern popula- 
tion to gather in towtis and factories, and the increasing tide of foreign immigra- 
tion, the time cannot be very far distant when the free States, as a whole, will be 
dependent on the South for a jtart of their food. The progress (^f j.opulation 
must soon force a resort to infe'rior soils for cultivation, and so r.aise the cost of 



26 

prod iic( ion. On the otiior hand, siioli a d;iy is far, far distant in the South. II«r 
numbers rccoiya no unnatural increase from immigration, but the adjustment of 
jtopuhition to food is loft to tho eternal laws of nature. Her inliabitants aro not 
f»o densely settled, and have therefore more land to cultivate. The soil is more 
fertile, and the superiority of climate is almost equal to as much more of natural 
fertility. It may, therefore, be concluded, that her people will continue to have a 
large surplus of food for exportation, after themselves consuming more per head 
than the people of tho free States raise And this, withount counting ujjon the 
rice, with which they supply the whole United States, besides exporting several 
millions of dollars worth. 

But if such is the coiiiparativo condition of the two sections as to the great 
staft'of life, how is it in regard to other articles, which add to our comfort, and 
minister to the higher wants of a refined civilizati..n ? 

The Patent Office Report (for 1847, p. 181,) e.^-timates the consumption of su- 
gar in the Uidted States at 3'20 inillioiis of pounds annually, which agrees very 
well with the return of imports retained for consumption, and the amount of the 
Louisiana crop. This allows 16 or 17 pounds for every person, black and white 
in the country, and makes the cor/suniption at the South, not quite 147 millions 
of pounds. But the Louisiana croj> has averaged 200 millions of pounds f.r the 
last four years, which would not only supply the Southern demand, but leave a 
f^urplus for exportation of 53 millions of pounds, worth S'2, 650,000. This is 
besides 10 millions of gallons of molasses, which will pay all the e.vpense of culti- 
vation. We may add, that the culture of sugar is fast extending at the South. 
There are large districts in Western Louisiana and Texas, and in the peninsula 
of Florida, wheve it may be raised to any amount as cheaply as in Cul)a. No- 
thing is wanting but capital to open them and erect the necessary machinery. In 
the event of a dissolution of the present Union, this would be easily supplied 
from the 15 millions of taxes saved, and the 140 millions of Southern produce 
restored to our use. On the other hand, the North is entirely depeiul-nt on the 
South and other countries for 173 millions of ])Ounds of sugar, worth -^8,650,000. 

Tobacco is another great staple of the trade of the world. Nearly the whole 
production (2.0 millions of pounds) of the United States is in the South; that 
is 210 millions of pounds, worth, at 5 cents, ten and a half millions nf dollars. 
Maryland, \'irginia and North-Carolina, alone produce 89 millions, and the qua- 
lity of their tobacco is acl<n<jwledged to be superior to any in the world. The 
South can supply the whole annual cousunqition of England and France, 49 mil- 
lions, and still liave 27 pounds left for every soul, slave and free, of her people, of 
both se.xe.s, above ten years of age. It would cost the North, -^=8, 756, 000 for the 
175 millions of pounds, required to furnish her population :us abundantly. This 
great staple has become almost a necessary of life, and we may expect a steady 
increase in the demand for it, while slave labour, and certain peculiarities of soil 
and climate, give tha South a monopoly of the supply of the liigher q ualities. 
But the chief crop of the South is yet to be considered; we, of course, mean 
cotton. 

Tho exports of this one article have some years been over two-thirds of the 
whole domestic exports of the United States. Last year they were more than 
half — over 60 millions of dullars. The i)rice this year averages 73 j>or cent, 
higher, as calculated from the actual returns, so that the exports, though less in 
quantity from ttie short crop, must be considerably greater in value. Tne crop 
has increased 25 per cent. .«»ince 1840 ; but the foreign demand, as shown by the 
exports, has increased still f ister, that is, 33 per cent. The average crop is now 
2,700,' ;0() bales, and all the rest of the world cannot soil 500,000 bales. In 
(Jreat Britain, 4 millions of persons live by the manulacture of cnttun. 2 millions 
more, in luimpe, and I million in the free States — in all 7 millions of people, 



27 

wliosc daily bread is diminislied or iiicro.ised by tlie supply of cotton from th« 
slave States. Eii<i;laiid lias iiiijiurted annually for the last live years, from coim- 
tri^s other than the United States, 322,801 bales, which is 00,000 less than tha 
arerao^e of tlie preceding; five years. The im[>orts from India, which, it was pra- 
tended at one time, would ruin our market, have declined, fr m 274,000 bales in 
1841, to 200,000 in 1849. Egypt sujiplied more than 80,000 bales in 1845, 
and now doe.s not send a third of that ciuantity. The Souihern States arc the 
only part of the world \vi;ere the growth of cotton is extending, and lieie the 
avenige increase of the crop is not over 80,000 bales a year. So gfeat lias lieen 
the decline of the t*otton crop in oilier countries, that the l']nglish supply from 
all quarters, available for home consumption, including our slave States, has of 
late years fallen oti' at the rate of 1,000 bales a week, while our (the Eiinlish) 
ct)nsum|ition has been increasing during the same period at the rate of 3,000 
bales a week."* Th<-se ^acts, taken fmm the highest aulhorily, olTcr tlie bi-ightest 
prospect to the ci>tton [ilantrr. It a])]K'ars that the Eno-lish drniand is outrun- 
ning the su])jily. at the rate of 239.000 bales per ;ninum, mm'e than 13 percent. 
on tile fiivsent consum})tion. 'lliesjav*^ States liave not t.'uly to meet this in- 
creasing demand, but also to supply the growing cunsuuipLioii at home, in the 
Northern States, and in continental Eui\>pe, which already uses one million of 
bales. It is hard to overrate the possible, and even ju-obable future demands of 
the market, if we consider the thousands of persons in (iermany and Ku-sia, 
who still use manufactures of tlax, and who must ultimately adoj.t the cheaper 
fabi'ics of eotton. The result m\ist ln' a laig'e increasi' of price, of which we 
already see the siiriis, for if is erroneous to attribute the presi'ut rise only to the 
short eroj.. The increase will be ])ermaiient, lor it will be s(;ruiv.i by our mono- 
poly of the production. In ordinary articles, when tlie dvaiand outruns tbesup- 
j)ly, the very rise of price, which is tlie ci)rise(jUenco, draws new capital and kdiour 
to the ]iroduction, until the old relation of the supply to the demaiid is I'estoi-ed. 
The jiriee of an tirdinarv article cannot, tlierefoiv, be jieriiianently raised beyond 
the cost of production, including the average ])rotits of indu-^try for the pi'oducer. 
But, in reirjird to cotton, the case is veiy difl'erent. It is admitted that no i)tlier 
country can ])roduce it of the best ([ualitv, au<l exjierieiice has a.bundantly proved, 
that neither cotton nor sugar, (we may add tol-acco and cottee,) can be profitably 
raised, on a large scale, without sla\'e lal)our. The cotton croji must, therefore, 
keep ]iace with our slave jiopulation, whieli already raises all il caii piek ; and we 
Jiccordingly find tliat th(^ .-iverage rate of increase uf both is just the same, a lit- 
tle over 3 per cent, a year, h is, ther^aore, impossiljle to increasethc supply l)y 
a new influx of producess, as in common cases ; and as the demand is increasing 
about 13 per cent, a year, the price must eontinue to rise, until its very rise 
checks the consumption. These facts proinis(! an almo-t unbound(.'(l prosperity 
to the cotton planter, whieh will extend to all tlieii- felk-w eiti/>'iis in the same 
happy confederacy. A vast Southern market will be o)>ened for grain, sugar, 
tobacco, jirovisions, manufactures, .-uid pro.duce oi' eveiy di'scrijiti(.n. When this 
demand is added to the exi-liiig wants of other counlrit's, the j>rolIls of the Vir- 
ginia and Maryland planter will equal those of their more Southern bivthren, and 
the slaveholdiiig States, freeil from aheavy burden of taxation, and relieved from 
the unnatural diversion (S their trade, would be the e-ai.leii spot of the world. 
The exp<irls of cotton to the free States and the other eoimli'ies, cannot be l(>ss, 
in a few years, than 140 millions of dollais m value; (we venture to predict 
tliat, ev<n in the present state of things, the exports of cotton to foreign coun- 
tiies, will reach 80 millions this year, besidi s .^00,000 beles, \\o\[]i (v23,7oO,0()0, 

* TI;(' I,etK!(iii Iu•(llU)lni^l. Tlie result is, of cor.r.^e, o))t:iine(l hy cen-iderin^ tlie stocki (in 
liarul in ci«h vear. 



28 

kept at lioim-.) All this would fc;rm lli>- aliniout of a higher system of civiliza- 
tioti tliaii the world has ever yet known. 

We shall say nothing of the mineral resources of the South, which are unsur- 
passed ; of lier gold, her copper, and her lead; of her mini-s of salt and of iron, 
and her vast fields of coal', we shall pass over her numerous agricultural produc- 
tions and fruits, many almost spontaneous. We might speak of the vine, which 
can be cultivated, not only along the Ohio, but to still greater advantage in the 
more Southern latitudes of Carolina, Alabama and Texas. Nor shall we mention 
coffee, which it fs tolerably certain might be raised with profit in the south of 
Florida, for the future annexation of Cuba would give us abundant supplies. 
The interesting experiment of Dr. Smith, in South-Carolina, may perhaps make 
us independent of China for tea, and even enable us to compete with her in 
other markets ; while climate and social institutions will always forbid its cultiva- 
tion north of Mason's and Dixon's line. We will pass at once to the considera- 
tion of the means of placing our productions in market. 

A large extent of sea coast not only improves the climate, but greatlv increases 
the facilities for commerce. This was one of the chief physical causes of the 
early prosperity of the nations on the Mediterranean, especially in the peninsula 
of Italy and Creece, and it has been no small element of England's power. The 
Southern States are eminenlly favored in this way. Their coast line on the At- 
lantic and Culf is 7.033 miles,* while the Northern States have only 3,2To. But 
to ajtpreciate the full advantage of the South, we must include the islands and 
rivers, to the head of tide-water, which make her whole navigable coast line 
22,701 miles, while the Northern is but 6,07,5. The very compact sha[)e of the 
Southern States make this grea*, line of navigation available to nearly the whole 
country, while the reverse is the case of the Nortli. The slaveholding States have 
an equal superiority in the extent of steam navigation on the Western rivers. 
The 1,000 miles cif the Ohio may be considered common to the two sections, and 
so may the 2,000 miles of the Mississippi, though 1.230 of these lie exclusively 
in the South, while some 300 more divide Missouri from Illinois, and little over 
400 are wliolly in the free States. There are 2,G55 miles of steam navigation 
on the Missouri and its tributaries, the most valuable part of which lies in a slave 
State ; and as the whole debouches at St. Louis, tliat city commanils all its com- 
merce. On the other tributaries of the great " Father of waters," as well as of 
the Ohio, there are 5,029 miles of steam navigation in the slave States, and only 
2,300 in the free States. The whole commerce of the vallev of the Mississi})]ii, 
to which the gr- ;.t"r part of the North-western States belongs, is naturally d -pen- 
dent on the South for an outlet, which the South would probably find it to her 
interest to permit the free States to use. There is a natural equity in the free 
navigation of rivers In' all the riparian powers, which was acknowledged in the 
treaty of Vienna, and applied to the Rhine and Danube, as a great jirinciple of 
European national law. The cities and couiitries at the outlets of such streams, 
gain the commercial command of all the country above, and in case of war, a great 
military power. A large portion of the commerce of the free States in the 
North-west, mu^t always go to enrich New-('>rleans. The other part has to find 
its way to the seaboard, by canals and rail-roads, at a cost of 4 per cent, in tolls, 
while a fourth part, probably, of Northern commerce, has to ]iass through South- 
ern States. There is no part of the South thus dependent on the North. 

It is true that federal legislation has made a roundabout voyage by New-York, 
shorter for Southern trade than the straight course of ICurope, but there is no 
part of the slave States whose natural port is not at home. Two great lines of 
rail-road will soon connect the Chesapeake l^ay with the valK'V of the Ohio and 

*Sco flu' l?(pf.rt of 111,. SnncriiitiMi.l.'wt nf (lu- Cimst Survey, in Tn-iwiiry Uoport, 1848-9. 



29 

the Lukes. A third line will stretch throuo'li the South-west to Memphis, on the 
Mississippi, while a fourth will form a continuous line parallel to the coast from 
Baltimore and Richmond, through Columbus and Atlanta to Natchez, with nu- 
merous lateral feeders from the I'iedmont vallies. Western commerce can reach 
the Atlantic by these vSouthern lines more quickly than by the Northern, and 
without any interruplit)n from ice and snow in wintL'r. Thry will concentrate a 
vast trade at Norfolk, Charleston and Savannah. Nothing is wanting but the 
capital to complete their improvements, which the restoration of our natural com- 
merce would at once supply. The same causes which have substituted steam for 
sails in inland navigation — the need for greater speed and certainty in the re- 
turns — will compli'te the change on the ocean, and give steam-sliips the pi-cfer- 
ence for connnerce as well as passengers. We iind that the custom house returns 
show that the proportion of the imports into !>oslon, brought in steamers, is 
rapidly increasing. Swift steam-vessels are nov.' building in Enghmd, to be em- 
ployed in the foreign grain train trade. '^'' 

This change must bd of great advantage to Noi'folk and Charleston, for the 
calms which make Southern latitudes unfavoui'able for a sail voyage to Europe, 
will make them so n)uch the better for steam. The trade in Indian corn and 
Southern wheat, (which, as we have seen, is di'ier, more nutricious, and better fit- 
ted for exportation than the Northern) will be greatly augmented. The mouth 
of the Chesapeake is naturally a better i)osition for a great city than the mouth 
of the Hudson. Tlud beautiful bay, ha\iHg all the advantages of a sea, without 
its storms, 4,010 miles of tide-water shores, of which 2,;.)V3 miles are in navigable 
rivers — more than double the nun)l)er in the States north of it. This noble sys- 
tem of rivers and bays may be said to lie free from ice all the yea.r, and waters 
one of the most highly favoured countries in the v.orld, both in the temperate 
chmate, the rich and easily improved soil, and the va.riet\- of its nroductions. 
x\dd to this all the country that may be more readily connected'by artificial com- 
munications with this point than any other, and there is no site on the Atlantic 
coa-^t, which :diould naturally conimand a larger commerce than Norfolk. We 
have explained the causes which have prevented the development of those re- 
sources, but once remove the burdens, and restore Southern capital to its jiro- 
ducers, and the shipping of New-York would soon whiten Hampton Roads, and 
her jialaces embellish the shores of the Chesapeake. Charleston is connected 
with the same lines of rail-road, and the cotton trade gives her equal or superior 
advantages. Mobile awaits but the hjosening of her shackles to stretch an iron 
road to the Ohio ; and who can predict the greatiiess of New-Orleans, at the 
mouth of the Mississippi valley, with its area of a million of square miles, its 
steam navigation of 1G,G74 miles, and its commerce, already valued at $200, 000,- 
000 ! What a position for that which has ever been the most lucrative commerce 
in the world — the exchange of the jtroductions of temperate and highly civilized 
countries, for the growth of tropical climates and less advanced societies ! The 
Gulf of Mexico would be comm;inded by the slave States, and they would want 
nothing but Cuba to nnike it a Soutiiern Lake. IJow long would they want 
that i Peaceable annexation would at once follow its independence of Spain, and 
that could not be delayed long after the separation of the North and the South. 
There is no just reason why England should desire to prevent its ann.exation 
now; and, in the event of a dissolution of the Union, it would be to her interest 
to strengthen us, and she would be bound to the Southern alliance by luitural 
ties, and would have natural causes of hostility to the North. The dependents 
of four millions other people on the S(juth for cotton, and of many more for food 
would give the slave States a powerful hoM upon the good will of her govern- 

* Blackwood's Mngazine, January, 18.50. 



30 

ment — n liokl that would Htr<Mi;ftl)oii with every year. No such ties woiiUl bind 
Emrlaiid to the free St;ites. Troducers of the saiue articles, and rivals in iiianu- 
fHcturiuLj industry, th'ir coimncrce would be small and their interests adverse. 
This hostile feeling would he nu'^ravated by a desire to possess Canada on th« 
one hand, and a jealousy ot its loss on the other. In any actual contest of arms 
tlie North would be ]<;'.rticularly weak. (Juv Engineer department says, that " It 
must be admitted that the Mritisli possess the military command of Lake Onta- 
rio."* This woulil facilitate the execution of the tine stratej^ic design which they 
/ailed .to accomplish in the revolution — to hold the line of the Hudson, and iso- 
late New England from the other States. The VVelhind Canal gives Englanil tha 
power of throwing vast supplies of every kind from Lake Ontario, where she h;ia 
the command of the upjier Lakes, and thus cutting oti' the western commerce 
from New-Voik. It also ]ilaces her in a position to strike at the line uniting the 
Eastern and Western free States, which oflers peculiar advantages to a foe from 
either the North or tlie South. From Lake Erie to Pittsburg is little over on« 
liundred miles, and might easily be held by an enemy, who had resources, either 
on the Lakes, or in Maryland and \'irgiiiia. The Northern States might i)e tliua 
com]iletely sundered. The North western States, commercially, belong rather to 
the South than to the North, and their connnection with the Eastern States woidd 
not be very strong. Events may be easily imagined, which would separate :^ 
Northern Confederacy into two parts ; the one leaning towards the South, and 
the other relying on a Canadian connection ; and, in estimating the relative capa- 
city of such a confederacy for war, we must remember that the States which com- 
pose it now, owe 110 millions of dollars, while the Southern SVaU^s owe only GO 
millions. 

When we consider all these facts, can we doubt that tie free Slates will ac- 
knowledge the equality of the South, rather than return to i]'ir natural pover- 
ty and weakness, by dissolving the Union ? — that Union to which we of the 
South are so devotedly attached, and to whose preservation we are willing to 
sacrifice every thing but our honour. 

We have seen that the North possesses none of the material elements of 
greatness, in which the South abounds, whether wo regard the productions ^>\' 
tiie soil, the access to the markets of the world, or the capacity of luilitarj 
defence. While the slave States produce nearly every thing within themselves, 
the free States will soon depend on them even for food, as tiiey now do for 
rice, sugsir, cotton, and tobacco — the employment of their bhij>s in Southern 
commerce, the employment of their labour in Southern cotton, and all that 
they can purchase of other countries with the fabrics of that great Soutiiern 
8taj)le. We have shown that the price of that staple must bo permHnenlljr 
ruiseil. How would the manulactuiing industry of the free States stand this 
rise, if their taxes were raised by a dissolution of the Union ; and how would 
their labourers subsist under this new burden, if they at once lost tiio employ- 
ment alibidid by the free use of one hundred and foity millions of Southern capi- 
tal, and the disbursement of twenty millions of Southern taxes i The answer 
to this question wiil bring us to the last view we shall present of our siibjeet, 
and will show that the Union has, in truth, inestimable worth for the North. 
It defies all the powers of hijures to calculate the value to the free States of 
the conservative inlluence of (he South, upon their social orLranization. 

The great sore of modern society, is the war between capital and labour. 
The fruits of any enterpii/e of indiislry have to re[)ay all the w.iges ol the 
labour employed in it, .-'.nd the remainder is the profit of capil.J. VWcry man 
knows that the profit he can make on any undertaking depends i;j)on ihe e.\- 

*1'J V.x. I'or. 1847-8, p. 60. 



31 

peiises, and that the chief |)art of these, is the Iiire of the neoessary hilioiw. 
The cheaper he can get tliat, the more clear gain is left him. It is ol^vious, 
upon this statement, that tlie lower the wages, the higher arc the profits, aiul 
it is the interest of capital to re(hice them to the lowest point, as it is of lal)oiii» 
td reduce the profits. Free competition is continnally hringiiig down the prices 
of the productions of industry, and the capitalists have to meet this efiect by 
lessening the cost of piochiction, and to lower the wages is one of the readiest 
ways to aceomi'ilish the end. It is true, that the laws of nature, if left unin- 
terrupted, \\ ill adjust the shares of wages and profits, in a certain ratio to each 
other; and in a young and flourishing countiy, where every addition to the 
stock of capital and labour eni])Ioyed, is attended by a proportional or greater 
increase of gross returns, tiiese shares will continue the same, or even increase. 
In such a case, t'le natural opposition of interest between the lal)0urer and 
capitalist is not felt; init the moment any cause interrupts the operation of 
these natural laws, or diminishes the productiveness of the new labour actual- 
ly brought into action, one or both nuist diminish ; for the whole returns to be 
divided, are less in propoition to the number of those who are to receive. 
Each will try to get the mo.st he can, and throw the whole loss upon the 
other; and in this strife capital has an immense a<lvantage. It can easily be 
transferred from less to more profitable employments, and from (countries 
where its rewards are low to those where they are high. We have seen an 
examj)Ie of this operation in the steady flow of capital from Europe to this 
country. Laliour has no such facility ; no freight is so costly as that of man. 
Poverty and ignorance combine with local aiiections and habits to tie the 
labourer to his native district, and even to the employment to whicli he has 
been trained. Emigration is the exception, not the rule ; it is ordy for the 
comparatively well off — those who have something — not for the countless 
crowd of poor, who live by their daily toil. Hence the supply of labour re- 
mains steady, while the demand — that is, the supply of capital — is readily re- 
duced, and profits are easily increased at tlie expense of wages. The same 
result is produced by other yet more inevitable causes ; the very diminution of 
the returns of industry retards the rate at which capital can accumulate. 
Meantime, population continues to increase at its formei- rate, and with it the 
supply of labour ; for the fall in wages which must follow, cannot check the 
increase of population, except by pinching them Mith the want of subsistence; 
but it is a slow and uncertain check, even in that way. It will have no such 
effect where the population is content to live upon an inferior kind of food — 
u[)on potatoes instead of corn, as has been the case in Ireland, and even in the 
Eastern i'vce States. No peojilc breed faster than these potatoe eaters. The 
necessary fall in wages then goes on with accelerated velocity, as population 
outruns capital in its increase, and begins to press upon the means of subsis- 
tence. The result is before us, in the starving labourers of Europe, when the 
wag's of a week's labour, foi- fourteen hours a ilay, are often only 3(5 cents a 
week! In 1812, in Manchester, 2,000 families, 8, 13G persons, were reduced 
to (his staiulard of sid)sistence, and in other years their condition h;is been 
still v.orst' ! We have i'efore alluded to the signs that the North is not vei'y 
far distant from this pressure of population upon tiie means of living, whii-h 
she is obliged ultimately to reach. Statistics show a gradual but certain de- 
cline in the wages of lal»our ii' the older paits of 'he free States. The desti- 
tution of the |)oor, in the Northern cities, is amujally increasing, and ther<> has 
been a fiightful growth of |);iuperism. Mr. I'isher says, ih :t in M:issachu- 
setts — the model State! — it reaches 1 in 2f). In England, ii is but di)uble, 1 
in 10. Meat is no lunger the daily food of the Eastei'n hd)ourer; ami one of 
the answers Irom Mame to the Treasury Circular, in ISlf), says that an able- 



32 



V 

bodied man caiujot possiljly suj^port himself ancl his wil'o by agricuUural la- 
bour! We have seen that the supply of food was already deficient in the 
Eastern States, and that in Onio, it had reached its niaxiniuni point; in otlier 
woids, that every future ineioase would bo attended with more than a jMopor- 
tional increase of cost. Add to this, the growing disposition of Northern 
population to desert agricultui'al emj)loyments, which must be partly due to 
their diminished returns, its tendency to concentrate in towns and factories, 
its rapid rate of natural increase, and its still greater increase by emigration 
from abroad, and we can have no doubt that Northern labourers are increas- 
ing faster than Northern capital. Hence, a pressure uj,on the means of sub- 
sistence, and a still greater fall in wages, cannot be far off. It would be 
heavy and instantaneous were the Union dissolved, for that event wovdd, as 
we have shown, not only throw 20 millions of dollars of new taxes upon the 
North, but would withdraw 140 millions of capital, which now employs her 
labour. This loss would fall chiefly, if not entirely, upon wages. The North- 
ern capitalist would not submit to a decrease of profit, but would send a part 
of his capital to the South, where profits were higher, nntil he had reduced 
wages at home to a point which would leave him nearly as much clear gain 
on his industry as before. Hi would, in this way, escape the whole burden 
of the new taxes, and throw it upon labour. 

In fact, in all old communities, we find that the soils which had been most 
fertile when virgin and fresh, are exhausted by continual cultivation ; and 
eveiy year the want of food foi-ces a. resort to lands which were at first re- 
jected as too poor. The returns of agriculture are therefore subject to a 
steady and natural decline, which cannot be arrested, except by the means of 
improvement, which modern science has discovered. The cultivation of the 
earth is rapidly assuming, a new and scientific character ; it is becoming al- 
most a sjjccies of manufacturing industry. To be conducted to the best ad- 
vantage, it will require the application of comparatively large capitals, in 
draining, liming, sub-soiling, and all the modern elements of '^'' hi f/h farming ;\ 
and it will demand the direction of supei'ior minds to control and organize 
the labour, of which there must be a certain and regular supply. This neces- 
sity is already felt in England. In the model county of Lincoln, the different 
oj)erations of farnnng are let oiit by contract to (fanr/ inasfprs, who have 
numbei-s of laboui\'rs, regularly enrolled, ready to undertake any job that n)ay 
be offered. These gangs are sent a consideralile dista'nt'e, in wagons, and 
men, women, j>nd cliildreii, separated trom their homes and families, sleep all 
huddled together in barns, till the contract is com|)leted. " When agriculture 
thus passes into the manufacturing state," as iM. l>eon Fauclier, the late Min- 
ister of the Intljrior in J-'rance, says, " we must not be surprised at the eflVcts 
of the transformation in the servitude and demoralizatien of the labourers." 
Any real and extensive improvement of agriculture in France and the free 
States must be attended with similar consequences ; for these requireinents of 
scientific farming cannot be met, with due regard to the morals and comfort 
of the labourers, except in a slaveholding conmiunity. The slave feels all tin 
wholesome influences of moral life, near his home, and beneath the guardian 
care of his master, wldle the owner can obtain all the efficiency of gang and 
factory organization, without any of its evils. Hence it is that the highest 
nractic.il exaujples of agricultural science in the Union, are to be founil in the 
Southern States, despite all their burdens;. We have seen what .Mr. Solon 
Robinson s.iys of the wheat culture in Virginia, and recent authentic state- 
ments have proved that grain ciujis are nowhere raised with more profit than 
in tide-watrr Virginia, where the slaves are most numerous. 'J'here is no farm- 
ing country north of \ irginia that can compare with the valley of the .lames 



W46 








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